JANUARY 18th, 2003
GEO FRONT (IN DEVELOPMENT)
1:03pm:
The funicular reached the bottom of the mysterious underground chamber, where multiple structures were being built with great speed. Almost a year had passed since Fuyutsuki last saw Gendo and his wife, and somehow he had grown more powerful and ambitious with his plans.
Gendo gestured at one of the guards to bring them their ride to the NERV pyramid. The car drove up to them, with the man Gendo had ordered to get the ride in the driver's seat. Fuyutsuki couldn't hide the fact that he was impressed by the design of the vehicle. He had never seen something quite like it.
"Your design?" He asked Gendo. NERV's to-be Commander shook his head.
"Tyrell's. We estimate that this will be a new mode of transportation for the new century." Gendo said proudly.
"What do you mean by that? The design is certainly modernistic... but it's just a car." Fuyutsuki said naively. Gendo's smirk grew slightly.
"Just enter the vehicle. You'll understand." He said, opening the door for the older man and letting him in politely. Fuyutsuki entered and sat in the back, with Gendo riding shotgun. He noticed the driver flicking multiple switches, and even pressing commands on a touch screen the car had installed in the front. Truly, this car looked out of this world.
He felt and heard the engines vibrate at a rate of which he had never felt before. He figured the engine was just some new, innovative kind of engine that would increase the speed of the car, or something along those lines. But what happened next took him by complete surprise.
He looked out the window, and noticed the car begin to hover. He wasn't sure what he was seeing was actually happening, but as the car flew forward and increased its altitude, he knew this was real.
"Impossible!" He said. "H-How? How is this happening?"
"Tyrell has his ways. It was a collaboration between my team of scientists and his tech team over in Los Angeles." Gendo explained.
The ride wouldn't take too long at all, since by car the pyramid was a mere 5 minutes away. Under normal circumstances, they would have driven by land. But with all the construction going on at the ground level, they had to fly over it to get there more efficiently.
Once this strange, new vehicle landed, Fuyutsuki had to observe it just a little in an attempt to understand how it worked. He had never seen anything like it, and it was hard to picture it as a common vehicle for the everyday person to have.
"What's this thing called?" He asked.
"It's a spinner. The technology used on the engine can be carried over into other vehicle types, too. Very soon, we may have all-electric military grade vehicles." Gendo said to him.
Fuyutsuki didn't like the sound of this, but there was nothing he could say that would make a difference. Gendo had so much power at this point, that he figured he could do as he pleased. This fact scared him.
The two proceeded into the pyramid, the repetitive sound of construction echoing in the vast chamber. Once inside the large structure, Gendo lead him to the most important parts of the place so far. The lobby was still being built, the floor not yet carpeted and looking rough.
The elevators were already in service, but were not entirely complete yet. Whoever rode it, had to be extremely cautious when doing so. They took the elevator down to a room with several large computers, wires still hanging out as they continued to build the headquarters.
Fuyutsuki saw a woman in a lab coat hard at work in front of multiple computer monitors. At first, he thought she was some ordinary scientist. But as they approached her, he couldn't help but find her head of hair extremely familiar.
She turned around as she noticed the two men approach her, and gave them a smile.
"Dr. Akagi?" Fuyutsuki asked. "You're in on this too?"
"Hello Fuyutsuki. Why yes, I am. We're here to advance the human race, how could I turn the offer down?" She said to him. Dr. Naoko Akagi was renowned for her scientific theories and abilities, much like Yui.
"This is where theory is realized, professor." She added.
Though Fuyutsuki was constantly irritated at the reminder of his ex-title whenever someone called him professor, he decided to keep it cool. He figured no one would really see him any other way, so he went with it for now.
"What is all this? What are you working on?" He asked, wondering what was up with the mass of cables and large walls of computers.
"It's the living neuron array as a computational device. It had already been demoed in the lab by 1999. I'm just scaling it up." She explained. "A normal computer is no more useful than the information we give it. This network; a neural one, will make connections on its own."
Fuyutsuki raised an eyebrow. Naoko chuckled.
"In other words, it can solve problems when we don't fully understand the situation yet." She said. "That is the power of the MAGI."
"The MAGI?" He asked. "Is this why we're here, Ikari?"
"Not quite." Gendo answered.
"Here, follow me. I'll show you what we have in store for the world." Naoko directed the older man.
Yet again, Fuyutsuki found himself being taken into a place he wasn't fully sure he felt safe in. The past 10 minutes since his arrival had been constant surprises, and he swore he could feel a headache coming on.
He was lead into large room, with a tank filled with an orange liquid. The color of the liquid reflected the lights inside of the room, making the whole place lit with a deep amber hue.
At first, there was nothing in sight that he could discern as the thing they brought him down here for. But with a press of a button, he found out exactly what it was.
Naoko entered a code, leading more lights to turn on. The center of the tank had remained unlit up until that point. Once the lights turned on, Fuyutsuki was puzzled by what he saw.
A human, fully submerged in this orange liquid. Cables were connected to multiple parts of his body, the man appearing to be unconscious.
"What is this, Ikari?" He asked in a panic, thinking the man he saw in front of him had long since drowned.
"This, professor, is the next step in our race's evolution." Gendo began. "Our first step towards acquiring the hand of God. This, is the first non-birthed individual."
Fuyutsuki turned his head in shock, knowing what he meant by that.
"Non-birthed, you mean... artificial?" He asked. "This human was made? Not born?"
"Precisely." Naoko said, looking proud of their achievement.
"H-How?" He asked, studying the man to see if anything about him was even slightly off compared to a natural-born human.
"The giant of light you saw, we call him 'Adam'. We created this man from Adam, and plan to create many more just like this one." Gendo explained.
"What are your plans with this kind of human... if I could even call it that?" Fuyutsuki asked.
"We haven't really come up with a name for them, but we've taken to calling them Replicants for now. They are our vehicle to regenerate Adam, and with that a new dawn for humankind. Until then, we will produce them on a mass scale. They will look, sound, and act just like real humans. Only difference is, they will have a different role in society." Said Gendo.
"And that is?" Fuyutsuki asked.
"I can't tell you right now. There are many things I'd love to explain to you, professor. But it's top secret, so I am not able to discuss these matters any further with you. Unless, you decided to join us..." He proposed. He stared Fuyutsuki straight in the eye, his smirk now gone. His looked sincere.
"Fuyutsuki, how would you like to be a part of our team... to uncover the next chapter of our human evolution?"
In the following months, Fuyutsuki would only uncover a more unsettling truth about NERV. Their supposed 'next chapter in human evolution' involved utilizing these artificial humans as slaves, and he was not at all on board with that.
However, he reluctantly joined NERV either way. All the knowledge he had gained about NERV, SEELE and Tyrell Corp had basically placed a target on his head. If he were to be let free with all this information, especially after threatening Gendo with releasing the truth about Second Impact, he would most likely have been silenced by now.
In the first year he spent working with NERV, many changes had been made to their original plans regarding the Replicants. Tyrell suggested they rename the Replicants 'Angels', as he thought that would be a great name to advertise them by; to imply that they were the best, most pure servants. Another change, was the decision to give this new line of humans emotions and a self-learning brain very much like that of humans.
And so it was; NERV produced the bodies and minds of the Angels, SEELE created their souls, and Tyrell Corp sorted them out before they were released and sold to the public.
However, Tyrell Corp was not doing this for the regeneration of Adam. That was just a secret plan that NERV and SEELE had cooked up. The only way they'd ever gain funding for this project is if they posed this new line of humans as a product to be sold to the world. They didn't really care about 'servicing humanity', as Tyrell would have put it. And though Tyrell was aware of Adam, he didn't suspect that Gendo and Keel were secretly plotting something together. All he thought they were doing, was distributing a groundbreaking new product to the world.
Once the Angels were finally perfected, NERV and SEELE would carry out their plan.
The first few Angels were extremely faulty. They were brought into existence as fully-grown adult bodies, but with the mind of a newborn. With no prior experiences to learn from, they'd have to be raised for years just like a baby would.
Tyrell was under the impression that the Angels would be made quickly and efficiently. There was no way they'd spend years just to raise a batch of Angels. NERV and SEELE also had no patience to wait for their Angels to fully mature, since they wanted to regenerate Adam as soon as possible.
The other problem, was that Angels had enhanced strength. Having the body of an adult, but the mind of a baby meant they had no awareness of what they were doing. A nurse's hand was accidentally broken by one of them, and the first batch of Angels had to be retired.
Tyrell demanded NERV to figure out a way to birth Angels with pre-programmed adult minds. Yui realized that since the Angels had no previous experiences to have learned from, they'd have to find a way to give them memories of things that never happened to them.
Yui's solution was to implant memories into them. They'd copy someone's childhood memories and implant them in the Angels' brain before birth. Once they are born, they are able to act like humans, and less like primitive beings.
By gifting them a past, even one that wasn't their own, they created a pillow for their emotions. Consequently, they would be much easier to control. If these Angels were to be sold to the world, they'd have to be 100% controllable.
AUGUST 3rd, 2003
TEST CHAMBERS, NERV HQ
11:03am:
The test chambers were vast. A bright, while color reflecting off its walls. From the ceiling, a glass tube hung with a naked human inside. This human had been completed, yet had not gained true consciousness.
Also inside the glass tube was L.C.L with the Angel fully submerged in it. They had successfully copied a randomly-picked NERV scientist's childhood memories with a memory reader, another invention of Yui's. This was to be the first Angel with memories of a past, and the air was filled with great eagerness. This was yet another big day for NERV.
"All systems are go." One NERV personnel said to Gendo. "Vitals are healthy, blood pressure's stable, and their heart rate shows no faults."
Naoko placed her hand on the lever that would release the 'newborn' from the warm, comfortable pool of L.C.L into the cold, unknown territory of the real world.
"Are we ready, Director?" She asked, looking over at the man as he stood in front of the tube.
"Yes, Dr. Akagi. Release her." He said, looking intently at the Angel.
Their first two tests of the memory implants had gone well, but not well enough to be declared a success. Though their first reaction was not a violent one, the first two Angel subjects were given only fond childhood memories. As a result, they were not familiar with any sort of pain. The shock of the cruelty of the world completely overwhelmed them, resulting in great amounts of grief. They were too traumatized to go on, and had to be put down.
The third test was considered a success at first, since the Angel subject had been more accustomed to childhood traumas, and the uglier side of life. They were even able to hold a conversation with NERV's team of scientists.
But another issue came; after about 3 weeks of checkups and healthy readings, the Angel died in a most unexpected way. After what was supposed to be an ordinary checkup, a nurse ran out of the patient's room screaming hysterically.
She was covered in L.C.L, and was in too much of a panic to explain the situation. Once a team of doctors went to observe what it was that she had been freaked out by, they found a large amount of L.C.L splattered everywhere.
After the nurse calmed down and was taken into questioning, she explained that the Angel looked as if he was in extreme pain. Their hands shook vigorously, and eventually even discolored to a yellowish color.
It was then that they popped, literally. Liquefied into L.C.L and splashed all over the room. Though it was a disappointing result, it was a new development.
After some more studies, Yui Ikari and Naoko Akagi discovered something crucial about Adam's physical form that extended to all humans of the earth; A.T Fields.
The energy that keeps the form of living beings. Without it, all organisms on the planet would turn to L.C.L. The only reason the Angels didn't immediately liquefy upon release from the pool of L.C.L was that the liquid itself kept them solid. Once they were out, their A.T Field slowly deteriorated until their body couldn't hold itself together anymore.
The discovery was quite shocking, but extremely helpful in terms of keeping the artificial humans alive. Before the fourth test commenced, their solution to the problem had been completed. Angels would require a shot of an experimental drug Naoko had developed specifically for them. They'd have to take these shots every 2 weeks, so that their A.T Fields wouldn't weaken.
And now, this female Angel would hold the answers to humanity's future.
"Are you sure about this, Ikari?" Naoko asked.
No one was entirely sure this was safe, as the first tests had not involved direct contact with a human after birth. Yui was present, leaving their child to be babysat at home. She wouldn't normally do this, but just wanted to make sure Gendo was safe.
"We haven't had an Angel interact with a person immediately after being born, sir... I just think that-"
"Trust me, Dr. Akagi." He assured her. "I think this will work."
There was something strange about Gendo's attitude at that moment. He was confident things would go his way, so much so that he requested the few security guards with handguns to leave the room. Of course, Yui refused to let that happen, as she thought Gendo was testing his luck.
After the first murders at NERV HQ, an armed security guard had to be on standby at all times when dealing with an Angel. Their enhanced strength was far to much of a risk.
"Yes sir." Naoko said. "Releasing the Angel now!"
She pulled the lever, and the pool of L.C.L was drained from inside the tube. With it, the Angel slid down and landed softly on the matted floor (to prevent the newborns from a hard impact with the floor) beneath the tube. The air was freezing compared to the warmness of the L.C.L and was more than enough of a disturbance to wake the newly born Angel. NERV's scientists always marveled at the sight of a birthed Angel.
Though at the time, the Angels' appearance was not quite perfect. Their skin complexion was pale, the most notable difference usually being the color of the eyes and hair of the Angel. This particular Angel had a head of white hair like that an elderly person would have. Her eyes; a haunting crimson-red hue.
Over time, NERV would work on giving Angels a more natural skin tone, hair color and eye color.
Gooey L.C.L still clung to her body. Her first breath was taken, a painful one since her lungs were still flat without air having ever flowed through them. She immediately began sobbing, just like every newborn Angel before her. In confusion, she ran her hands through her body, and her eyes remained squinted from the overwhelming white color of the chamber.
Gendo slowly approached her and knelt down, observing the newborn struggled to even sit up. He grabbed her face and pointed upwards to get a better look at her. Though her vision was still blurred at that time, she could make out that what was in front of her was indeed another human. To her, it was the first living person she was able to distinguish from herself.
"The first thought one tends to fear, is loss." He began. "It's fascinating... Before we even know what we are, we fear to lose it. Birth is the first trauma."
That moment had stirred something within Gendo, something he never felt before. At least, not to this level.
The team of scientists watched as Gendo went on his philosophical tangent. Some were tentatively listening, while others focused more on their work. Naoko watched, looking absolutely stunned. Yui also watched, but had a look of disappointment in her eyes. All she could think about right now, was her son.
"Happy birthday." Gendo said to the newborn.
SEPTEMBER 5th, 2004
UNDERGROUND EXPERIMENTAL FACILITY 2, HAKONE
4:39pm:
For a boy of only 4 years of age, this placed looked like every sci-fi show he had grown up with over the years. The amount of people in white lab coats, cables hooked up to the biggest machines he'd ever seen, and lots of flashing lights made him believe he was in a sci-fi universe.
He ran all around the place, not tiring himself out one bit. His hair was soaked with sweat from how much he had been running, but he didn't care about that at all. All he could think of was how much fun he was having, even if it was just running around.
"Shinji, please slow down. This is no place for running." Gendo said flatly over at his desk. Shinji looked over to his dad with a big smile.
"Okay, dad!" He said.
Fuyutsuki just watched as the child stood still and tried to contain all the energy that still ran through him. Shinji ran over to the window, where his mother stood in front of an object that was mysterious to young Shinji. The ex-professor couldn't help but wonder why the kid was even there.
"What is this child doing here?" He asked Naoko.
"He's Director Ikari's son." She answered.
"Ikari, don't you think your child should be somewhere safer? This is no place for a child! Today is-" Fuyutsuki said before being cut off.
"Sorry Fuyutsuki, but bringing him was actually my idea." Yui said into her mini-mic.
With the memory implants having successfully controlled the Angels' emotions, NERV was now free to conduct their experiments that weren't related to Angels. At least, for now they were.
This experimental facility consisted of two rooms; one was a standard computer room where teams of scientists observed and controlled each experiment, and the other was a vast white room with a giant pool of L.C.L.
Before Second Impact wiped out the Katsuragi Expedition, Yui had been studying the contents of a body part of Adam's they referred to as his 'core'. After Adam had been reawakened, the core was no longer around for them to study. Luckily for Yui, she had taken as many notes on it as possible. She identified what it was made of, the kind of energy it produced, and even theorized of ways to control it. She eventually discovered that within Adam's core, lay his soul.
The core itself also had strange characteristics never seen before by scientists. Energy readings picked up a strange magnet-like pull coming from the inside of core. No one knew exactly what would happen if one were to get too close.
This core was a replica, the notes Yui had taken on Adam's core being the basis of its design. With some scientific trickery, she was able to make one of her own. Since it was slightly smaller and weaker than that of Adam's, they assumed it was more controllable.
The core was placed directly above the L.C.L. Numerous pipes connected the core to the liquid, as this experiment required the mixture of the two.
Today was the first test of the core's effects on a human. Yui claimed she had done enough research on it to know it was safe, and so they took her word for it. She was also the subject of this experiment, having put on a skintight uniform designed to enhance the effects of the core on her.
Gendo was not too sure about this, but trusted Yui's enthusiasm towards the project. Though everyone could tell something was off about him today. His expression was dead serious, and a light frown remained on his face the whole time. Nobody asked him about it, and assumed he was just having a bad day.
"Yui, this is a very important experiment!" Argued Fuyutuki. "Our facilities are not a child's playground!"
"I want him to see this, professor." Said Yui. "He's wanted to come see what we do here for a while anyway... I just couldn't resist!"
"Mommy!" Shinji said as he jumped and waved from the window in the lab. She waved back as she readied herself for the beginning of the experiment. She got in position and was ready to approach the core.
"Yui..." Fuyutsuki uttered to himself.
The experiment was met with devastating failure. Once Yui had gotten close to the core, the energy readings picked up from it had skyrocketed. She was pulled in, and vanished in an instant. The core's energy resulted in a power outage that lasted hours.
Yui was nowhere to be found. They looked everywhere, even in the bottom of the pool of L.C.L. Everyone went into a panic, even going as far as calling for an investigation for her. As more time passed, their worries that Yui might've been killed only worsened.
All attempts to locate her had failed, hours and hours spent just trying to find some trace of her. All that was found were bits of DNA. By midnight that night, she had been declared dead.
Shinji had changed. He witnessed the death of his mother with his own eyes, yet didn't fully comprehend what had happened. The chaos and confusion of all these adults running around desperately to solve this problem especially shook him. Children often saw adults as all-knowing and in control of things, so seeing them panicking too and not knowing what to do frightened him.
Gendo had changed. The man who had become known in his workplace for his cocky behavior had now rarely ever smiled. Following Yui's death, he had been gone for a week. People would have worried more for Gendo if he hadn't already had a son. They figured that since he still had him, he would still have a reason to go on. Of course, that's not how he saw things. Shinji was now under the custody of his aunt and uncle, and from there he and his father were mere strangers to each other.
2004 was a dark year for NERV. Just two months after Yui's death over in Japan, tragedy struck once again. Over at Tyrell Corp HQ in Los Angeles, an unexpected rebellion had occurred.
After the success of the memory implants, Tyrell had Angels shipped over and trained for work at his company's HQ. But what no one expected from the Angels was the sense of self they developed. Over time, they began to question everything; why they were the ones who did all the work and were allowed no real freedom, what set them apart from natural-born humans, and most importantly, why they had to put up with this.
The Angels were no longer in their control. On November 14th that year, an Angel murdered Tyrell in his own bedroom. His death was a shock to the world, mostly because the public was unaware of the creation of Angels in the first place. They covered it up with a story about a schizophrenic man breaking into Tyrell Corp HQ. When asked what the man had wanted from Tyrell, officials stated they had no information about his motives.
This left NERV and SEELE at a dead end; they were facing a multi-million dollar project that failed miserably and could not possibly recover from it anytime soon. Officials at Tyrell Corp ordered NERV and SEELE to retire all their remaining Angels, and to keep the failed project hidden from the public. NERV complied immediately, having all their remaining Angels put down after they had been ordered to do so.
SEELE was now left with only NERV to carry out the 'next step of human evolution'. With Gendo being gone for a week, the council members over at SEELE grew frustrated. To them, the evolution they wanted to force upon the world had no time to wait for a grieving of a man who had just lost his wife. To them, humankind's evolution was above all.
SEPTEMBER 13th, 2004
U.N ARTIFICIAL EVOLUTION LABORATORIES, HAKONE
1:29pm:
A lot had been going through Fuyutsuki's mind in the past week. The loss of Yui had left a great void in a lot of people's lives; her co-workers, employers, friends, and of course her family. Not only was a great mind lost, but a great person. Fuyutsuki had been thinking of Gendo and his son in particular. Gendo was never the man to show much emotion, but his absence spoke volumes of the hurt he was going through.
And Shinji, the boy with all the joy and that smile on his face. He couldn't even begin to imagine what he was going through. As he walked down one of the many hallways in the laboratories, he noticed the door to Gendo's office shedding light from within.
'Has he finally come back?' He wondered, now heading to that door specifically.
Opening the door, he found Gendo sitting behind his desk looking very much like he did the day Yui had died. He knew the man had been going through lots of pain, but what he found strange was how he had the exact same expression he did on that very day, before anything even went wrong. He either had a bad feeling about the experiment, or was greatly upset by something else beforehand.
"Director." Fuyutsuki said.
"Hello again, Fuyutsuki." Gendo greeted flatly.
"You're back... We haven't seen you for a whole week." Stated the ex-professor. "Of course, I understand. But there is a lot of work to be done, Ikari. If you want this evolution to commence, we need you here... just as much as you need us."
"I am aware of this fact, Fuyutsuki." Gendo replied. "I've been doing a lot of thinking this past week... Keel has proposed a new project for us to work on, but I never took it seriously until recently."
"Oh?" Fuyutsuki asked. "What does he have in mind, then?"
"Our plan to regenerate Adam will still carry on, but on a secondary track. This is just a new means of achieving that." Gendo explained.
"What are you getting at?" Asked the older man somewhat impatiently.
"The path to God we have yet to try, Fuyutsuki..." Gendo said, dropping the hint that would reveal it all.
"No... You couldn't possibly mean-?"
"Yes. I am talking about Instrumentality." Gendo confirmed. "We cannot continue to live as individuals in pain. We must unify, and understand each other's troubles through the eyes of everyone in this world."
Fuyutsuki stood, mouth agape, in disbelief.
"It is only the logical next step for us. To do this, we must scale up our resources here at NERV. I'm thinking of buying out Tyrell Corp." Gendo added.
Fuyutsuki said nothing, knowing the man had already made up his mind about it. He worried that the power may be too much for Gendo. He could certainly handle the power, he just didn't trust the man with it.
"Is SEELE aware of your plans to acquire Tyrell Corp?" Fuyutsuki asked.
"They will know in time." Was Gendo's answer, almost predictably.
SEELE would have wanted to own at least half of Tyrell Corp, he knew that much. But Gendo wanted it all to himself. With SEELE already having been known as a shady organization, he only wondered what kind of problems they'd have to face in the coming years.
This was the day NERV was no longer the same. The NERV that had seeked to help humankind, was now working in the favor of only one man. No matter the cost, Gendo would work to get what he wanted.
Yui's NERV had perished, and Gendo's was born.
APRIL 24th, 2015
NERV HQ
5:32pm:
The chaotic and almost-mindless running around of NERV personnel reminded Fuyutsuki of the grim day of Yui's death. Just like that fateful day almost 11 years ago, there was a lot of confused running and very little actual problem solving.
The ambush NERV's troops had endured was still fresh, with numerous wounded troops and bodies still being brought in from Matsuyama. All he saw before him was death and grief. The world they were supposed to have changed for the better by now, was looking like the exact opposite of that.
'If Yui was here to see this, would she still side with NERV?' He pondered. 'All she wanted was a better world for everyone... her son most of all.'
Fuyutsuki looked back at the year of 2004, thinking about how simple things seemed back then. He couldn't have imagined things getting out of hand to this level.
NERV bought out Tyrell Corp, and its transformation from a scientific organization to an industry giant (and eventually a militaristic organization) began. This was when tension began to build up between SEELE and NERV, both constantly debating how to manage Instrumentality.
Over time, the tension built up to something greater. NERV would consistently postpone Instrumentality, while SEELE would press them on about it continuously. If they had known about Gendo's true intentions with Instrumentality, they'd likely already had launched an aerial attack above Tokyo-3 in an attempt to breach the Geo Front.
All this talk of 'evolution' and 'the need to unify all humankind' only brought on more pain in the world. Thousands of deaths and counting, today being a particularly bad day for NERV. Fuyutsuki never trusted the organization, especially under Gendo's command. But one man not believing in them meant nothing. It changed nothing.
By now, the whole country was losing faith in them. And while this made the old man was somewhat glad that people were beginning to reject this war, he worried that all they had worked for would go to waste. Worried that their work towards a pain-free world would all be for nothing. All the work that Yui had come up with in the first place.
'Yui, I hope you really know what you're doing.'