JUNE 11th, 2015

GENDO'S OFFICE, NERV HQ

12:28pm:

"That was not Rei Ayanami." Gendo said with much frustration to Ritsuko. "The soldier that questioned nothing I ordered of her, the one that would never dare challenge me like she did today... that was Rei."

She had been called in there to discuss Rei again, which seemed to be happening more and more these days. It didn't help that she was still groggy from waking up no more than two hours ago, being summoned by Gendo the minute she stepped into HQ. She wished she had to talk about Rei a lot less often, let alone see her. Not only did Rei have a weird aura to her, but Ritsuko was never fond of the girl. Not one bit.

And here she was again, conversing with the Commander about the crimson-eyed girl once more.

"How could this have happened?" He asked, only making NERV's head scientist more anxious.

"Sir, with all due respect, it was never a guarantee that Rei would remain 100% compliant her whole life. She's in her adolescence, after all. This kind of behavior is normal for her age group."

"Except Rei is not normal, Dr. Akagi." He argued. "Everything was going according to plan until my son came into the picture. She was not supposed to develop feelings for him... if this interest she has for Shinji is to continue, it may scrub the path we had set in stone. Rei is not someone who should be allowed to feel these emotions."

"Souls always yearn for more if exposed enough, Commander Ikari." Explained Ritsuko. "Shinji may have given Rei her first taste of true friendship, which in turn might've cause her to unearth all these foreign emotions. I've even witnessed the two spending time together before... it's very possible we didn't take the necessary precautions by letting that happen in the first place."

Gendo shook his head at her.

"No, that was not only something I expected Shinji to do, but needed him to do. That way his interest in her could further establish itself... it was always part of the plan. But Rei falling for him was never intended, nor was it ever a risk we even remotely considered. Whatever it is Shinji has done to drive such a change in her must have really challenged her perception of the world. It needs to be sorted out immediately."

"But just how will we even begin to go about such a thing, Commander?" She asked. "Rei is acting very much on her own will now... she might not be inclined to cooperate with us at all anymore."

"She has a medical appointment set for today, correct?" He asked Ritsuko.

"Yes sir, at 1600 hours." She answered.

Every few weeks, Rei had to report to Ritsuko for medical appointments. What she was checked up for, or even what she was given was never detailed to anyone else in NERV. The office Rei was to report to was also kept a secret. No one other than Gendo, Fuyutsuki and Ritsuko knew about these appointments.

"Have a talk with her during the appointment." He ordered.

"About what? Talking to her hasn't worked at all so far." Ritsuko stated.

"She must not think of Shinji as someone to hold onto. Even when I told her of his drug use, she refused to see anything wrong with it. It has become clear that physically separating the two will not be enough, so her perception of him is what must be altered. I trust that you will figure out some sort of solution."

'That doesn't narrow anything down for me.' She mused before shaking the thought off. 'What am I saying? I'm a scientist, it's my job to conjure up a solution on the spot!'

But lately the Commander's needs had been considerably more challenging to fulfill. Like many of her recent tasks, this one wasn't going to be easy.

'Although, this is Rei we're dealing with. A very different Rei from before...'

Ritsuko hated that Rei's appointment was going to have to last longer than previously expected. But she wasn't about to let Gendo down, not in a million years. She had to do it, there was no way she could ever refuse. And though part of he wondered why she was so dedicated to doing whatever the Commander needed of her, she always found herself fulfilling his every order, no matter how much it inconvenienced her.

"Yes sir." She begrudgingly complied.

The phone on Gendo's desk rang suddenly, which he picked up after gesturing to Ritsuko to give him a minute. She nodded.

"Commander Ikari, you have an incoming call from Mr. Kaji." The female operator said to him from the other end.

"What is this call concerning?" He asked.

"He wishes to discuss some kind of deal with you... what it's about, he didn't say." The operator explained.

Gendo found this most unusual. Kaji almost never rang him up like this, and if he did it was always related to jobs Gendo had given him. At the moment, Kaji was completely off-duty. So he knew this discussion the agent wanted would probably eat up his time. He lowered the phone slightly and looked back up at Ritsuko.

"You are dismissed, it appears something has come up." He said to her before raising the phone back up. "Patch him through."

Ritsuko turned to leave, finally dropping the poker face she kept all throughout her conversation with the Commander. She was frowning now, feeling more and more like everything she was doing was for nothing. She was tired of all the hard work that almost never made her feel accomplished, tired of the countless hours she'd spend isolated focused on a single task, tired of having to please this man all the time.

And most especially tired of Rei.

But she felt unable to do anything about it. No matter how she felt about it, or how much it drained her, Ritsuko found herself back here.

'All of this... and for what?'

TOKYO-3 DETENTION CENTER

1:19pm:

'Can all these people stop staring already?' Shinji thought regarding the detainees that surrounded him.

He kept his eyes pointed at the floor at all times inside of the shared cell. His face carried a tiny bruise from when one of the officers pinned him down outside his designated hospital room, so all the attention he was getting wasn't exactly unwarranted. That, and being the youngest person there meant that every other people there that day had all wondered to themselves; 'What the hell could someone his age have done to be put in here?'

The fact that his hair was now long and very out of shape after leaving the core most certainly didn't help, something he thought about as he ran one hand through it.

'I was only inside for a month... how is it that my hair grew this long?' He pondered. 'This amount is just too much for a time span like that.'

Shinji recalled the first time he entered the pod, and how he grew 2 inches taller after Ritsuko's experiment. Both times he entered, some kind of strange effect always presented itself once he exited it. There were also many mysterious factors to the sensations he felt while inside. He then thought of his mother again, and how he hadn't even questioned the fact that she was in the core with him when he was absorbed.

'Mother... why were you there as well? Is that where you've been all this time?' He thought. 'There's more to that pod than NERV will tell me, I'm sure of it.'

The detention center reeked of human filth. A good amount of them had attempted to outrun the officers that took them in, so the room was stamped with the stench of body odor. On top of that, some of them were clearly homeless and hadn't showered for months, possibly even years. The place outright depressed Shinji.

'I shouldn't even be here... I had nothing to do with the injection!' He thought angrily. 'I was... dead when it happened.'

His wake-up from the core had already proven to be quite overwhelming. But after his sudden arrest at the medical center just a day after his return, he wondered just how much more could happen to him in a single day.

Since he was still in a hospital gown when he was forcibly taken from the medical center, he was given some raggedy old sweater and dark brown sweatpants, both of which where just slightly too big for him. And like the cell he was in, it stunk badly. He felt the sweater with his fingers, certain parts of the cloth having been hardened by dried sweat. The darkened spots all throughout the clothes wasn't very reassuring either.

He was now most definitely sure that former detainees had been lent the same garb he had on now.

'This is putrid.'

Shinji wondered if he was just always destined to lose the good things life brought him. Not too long ago, he could've sworn he was going down a brighter path. It was also not too long ago that he was looking into the eyes of the girl he had feelings for. And then his father walked in and took her away. Again. Something about the timing of his arrest struck him as strangely coincidental, since Rei was on her way to see him.

'Could he have-?' He wondered.

He could tell Gendo was not at all okay with the possibility of he and Rei being together. So when she was called up to his office, and he was suddenly arrested at the exact moment Rei arrived to see him, it all began to come together in Shinji's head.

'Fucker...'

"Ikari Shinji? Is Ikari Shinji here?" A different officer asked while entering the room, causing Shinji look up to see who it was.

"Right here." He replied flatly.

"It's your lucky day, boy. Your stepfather's here for you. Came here to bail you out." The man said as he unlocked the cell and sent two other officers to escort the young teenager.

Now Shinji was completely lost.

"Stepf-?" He stopped, realizing this might have been his only way out of there. "Um, yeah. Alright."

The officer said nothing as he shut the cell behind Shinji.

He thought that whoever was claiming to be his stepfather sure was being generous by bailing him out. He had no idea who it could even be, but he knew that it was someone he was probably friends with, or at the very least an acquaintance.

So after changing into cleaner clothes the detention center had available to give to him, he wasn't all that surprised when he saw Kaji awaiting him outside the main entrance.

"Woah." Kaji said with a bit of a dropped jaw. "Never thought I'd see the day you rocked the locks... almost didn't recognize you!"

Shinji was about to open his mouth to ask it what was Kaji was talking about before quickly realizing it was about his messy hairdo. His arms shot up in an attempt to cover it.

"Give me a break! I wasn't even awake when this happened!" He said with much annoyance.

At first, Kaji found Shinji's attitude upon being released from the detention center to be quite unwelcome. But after what the boy had just been through, he couldn't really blame him. Shinji himself caught onto the fact that he wasn't being very nice to the man who had just bailed him out. He put his hands down and lowered his head.

"S-Sorry, I'm just... really confused right now."

"Don't beat yourself up over it, Shinji." Kaji assured him. "I'm sure nothing's making much sense to you right now, anyway. I figured being locked up was the last thing you needed after the month you've been through."

Shinji looked back up at him.

"Is that why you're here?" He asked.

Kaji gave Shinji a so-so hand gesture, then gave him an umbrella to avoid getting drenched by the rain outside.

They both kept quiet as they walked to their escort vehicle, the sound of raindrops being more than enough to replace the lack of conversation between the two. As the vehicle was finally in their view, Shinji spotted the NERV logo on the side of the car.

"Wait, why are we going back there?" He asked anxiously, which Kaji noticed right away.

"Don't worry about it. I'll explain everything when we're in the car."

The thought of possibly having to face his father again put Shinji on edge. And although that fact angered him, it was better than staying inside the smelly detention center any longer. The escort driver opened the passenger door and the two entered the vehicle without delay.

The ride was mostly quiet, which neither really minded. They didn't know each other that well outside of work and the occasional interaction. But Shinji had a feeling he knew what he was about to get dragged into, which was beginning to upset him.

More silence, at least for a few minutes. Shinji only spoke up once again when a question burned in his mind, one he was almost sure he already knew the answer to.

"Are we on our way to see him, is that it?" He asked Kaji.

"You mean your father?"

Shinji frowned.

"The Commander." He replied.

"Well yeah, that's what I meant." Kaji said.

"He's not my father. Not after everything he's done."

It had now struck Kaji just how much Shinji had changed since he last saw him, apart from the hair. He knew the boy to be dejected, and at other times even moody. But there was something a lot more dark about him now, which Kaji found to be a real shame after hearing Misato's own retelling of the moment he and Rei had together the night before.

Kaji could see that Shinji was well aware that his father was behind the arrest. That was enough to erase all the optimism he gained that very morning.

The two said nothing to one another for the rest of the ride.

GENDO'S OFFICE, NERV HQ

2:13pm:

"You are being discharged from NERV for willful possession of an illegal substance and for performing under the influence... both criminal acts." The Commander said to his son in his usual atonal fashion. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

Kaji felt like he was intruding on a very personal family matter. As much as he would like to give the two space to discuss things privately, he had told Gendo he would monitor Shinji at all times for their meeting. He looked at Shinji, wondering what he would even say to the man.

At first Shinji just stared back at his father with an empty gaze, eyes just slightly widened. He said nothing.

"Answer me." Gendo said more assertively. Shinji's hand balled into a fist.

The Commander just sat there waiting for an answer, not fazed at all by the fact that his son was missing for an entire month. And just because of a crime he supposedly committed, his father was there scolding him for it. No concern for his own son's life, and no trace of love or care in his eyes.

Just that blank stare.

Shinji remembered all those imaginary scenarios he had witnessed back inside the core, particularly the one of him stabbing his father. This was the man that abandoned him long ago. The one that had just thrown him in a cell. The one that always showed up to take his happiness away. The reason he wasn't spending time with Rei right now.

"What do I... have to say for myself?"

But most of all, he was the very reason Shinji was even thrown into this war.

"If you have nothing to say, you should leave. A moving truck is already waiting outside Katsuragi's apartment. Pack your things and leave Tokyo-3. You are no longer of any use to us." Gendo said as he stood up. "Mr. Kaji, escort him out now."

"What?" Asked Shinji. "But I- I live here."

"Incorrect." Gendo argued. "You were under Major Katsuragi's watch because you served as a troop of NERV. That you are no more, so you can no longer be a tenant."

Shinji quickly thought of a way to possibly live elsewhere in Tokyo-3, but the thought was quickly shot down when he remembered he didn't have nearly enough money to afford an apartment on his own.

"W-Where will I live, then?" He asked worriedly.

"With your uncle. We have already contacted him and arrangements have been made to move you back." His father answered.

This was what Shinji had always wanted. To go back to his normal life of nothingness back home, where all he had to deal with was school.

"You will no longer be allowed within the city limits of Tokyo-3 once you leave." Gendo warned.

But things had changed. He met people. He came out of his solitary shell, something he never thought he could do. What he thought he wanted was actually the downfall of everything he had worked for in the past months of his life.

"If you choose to trespass, there will be serious consequences. But most importantly-"

Gendo moved his hands from their usual position in front of his face, placing them flatly on his desk.

"-you are to stay away from Rei."

His son's fist tightened even further.

Shinji felt his blood boil once more. It reminded him of the time he exploded at Asuka and almost got physically violent with her. It was unpleasant, but the feeling was much stronger now. Suddenly, rational thought was escaping his brain.

"Mr. Kaji, see that he leaves headquarters immediately." Ordered the Commander.

"I- I want to-" Shinji said discreetly, his voice so low neither Kaji or his father could hear. "I want to- I want-"

He was baffled at how little Gendo actually cared about him. He knew there was never much love for him there in the first place, but only now was it beginning to push Shinji over the edge. He had never felt this angry before. The image of his father bleeding all over the floor kept replaying in his mind.

"I want to- I want to..."

"Come on Shinji, we should get going now." Kaji said, tugging Shinji's shirt to snap him out of his daze.

"I WANT to... I want to! I want to-"

Shinji quickly rushed forward. He jumped over the desk and promptly swung his fist at Gendo, whom he had just caught the attention of.

"Shinji!" Kaji shouted as he went after him.

The punch cleanly landed on Gendo's cheek, almost sending the man to the floor as he tried regaining balance. Shinji had tried for a second hit but Kaji grabbed him by the arms and pulled him back. Shinji was too small and weak to escape the hold and struggled to even stand up anymore.

"Stop!" Kaji said. "Nothing good will come out of this! Calm d-!"

"YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU PUT ME THROUGH!" He yelled hysterically at his father, his voice beginning to crack. "YOU JUST SIT THERE ALL DAY! YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT ME! YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT ANYONE! YOU JUST ORDER PEOPLE TO THEIR DEATHS! YOU FUCKING DESK JOCKEY! YOU-"

"STOP IT!" Kaji said once more, much louder this time as he now fully restrained Shinji.

"HE'S A FUCKING PRICK! HHH-" He tried saying to Kaji between violent sobs, still looking at his father threateningly. "HE DOESN'T KNOW WHAT WE GO THROUGH! HE DOESN'T- HHH-"

He was now too tired to even try to free himself. His life was falling apart all over again and it was breaking him. He tried as hard as he could to regain control of his emotions, but he knew it was too late.

"L-Let go of me..." Shinji said weakly as he pushed Kaji back. "Just fucking let go of me!"

Kaji backed off as Shinji stood in place, who was confused as to what he should even do now. His sobbing only worsened, the shock of his actions beginning to settle in his mind.

"I'm- H-!" He tried saying, his sobs betraying him as tears and snot poured down his face. "I'm tired! I- I- f'cking-! Ahh..."

He dropped to the floor, almost curling up into a ball as he cried his anger out. The deep hatred he had for his father was all that consumed his mind at the moment. Both Kaji and the Commander knew he wasn't going to try anything now. Shinji covered his face as he repeated the word 'fuck' over and over to himself.

Gendo felt the sting on his face as he placed his hand on the bruising area. Kaji turned to look at him, waiting for some kind of command as he had no clue what to do next either.

"Take him away." The Commander said calmly. "Now."

He nodded and approached Shinji, staring at him as he continued to sit on the floor in a pitiful state. The boy stood up but avoided eye contact with either of them as he sobbed his way out of there along with Kaji. When the two eventually left, Gendo could taste something metallic.

He grabbed a tissue from his desk and delicately dabbed it in the left side of his mouth, presented with a red stain upon removing it.

'That was it.' He thought. 'What I was looking for... only now it surfaces.'

3:49pm:

'Another nothing day.' Thought Asuka. 'Aida and Suzuhara are all distraught over the idiot... it's bumming out the rest of the class. Even Hikari is beginning to feel bad about it now. Everyone's so down about something... I can't stand it anymore.'

It wasn't the collective mourning and the potential loss of a classmate that irritated Asuka, it was having to feel the emotion herself that riled her up. She tried shutting all thoughts of sadness from her mind, choosing to get on with the day as quickly as possible. There was something about today that was almost bothering her. Like some strange feeling that tainted the atmosphere when around others, no matter where she went or who she was with.

She had also noticed that a certain blue-haired girl wasn't present in class that day, the first time that had happened in a while.

'No sign of the doll either. Even Misato was up earlier than me this morning. Something about today is... weird.'

She raised her umbrella a tiny bit to get a look of Misato's building, reaching for her keys as she mentally prepared herself to deal with the drunk herself. Asuka was tired of having to live there, which she thought was only going to last a short while. Without Shinji around, the whole point of Asuka living there was gone since Misato had only done so to learn to live with each other to better coexist in the battlefield.

After entering the lobby and once again checking the elevator just in case it had been finally repaired, she began walking up the staircase after inevitably ending up with the same result.

'How can Misato live in such a dump with a salary and a position like hers?' Asuka wondered. 'Bet it's the cost of all that beer... what a fucking drunk.'

She would follow her usual protocol upon entering the apartment; quickly close the door behind her, avoid Misato as best she could and go straight to her room. She especially needed her personal space today, since her whole week had already been too depressing when in class.

But just as she opened the door, she heard a very familiar male voice speaking.

Kaji and Misato had been talking about Shinji's discharge from the hospital in a hush tone.

"Are they gonna add a charge for aggravated assault on him?" Misato asked worriedly. "Maybe we can try to pay that off too?"

"I don't know whether the Commander's gonna press more charges. If he does, I don't think we could just pay them off. Bailing him was one thing, I talked it out with him in the first place. But there's no telling what they'll do or what'll happen to him once he's out of here." Kaji explained.

"I'm worried." She admitted. "When he first moved in, he was so socially absent that it was clear he had no friends back home. He never even got a call from his uncle or his aunt! The people he lived with for most of his life! I worry he has nothing back home, nothing at all."

Still entering the apartment, Asuka couldn't hear what they were talking about at all, and she was completely unaware that Misato was even there since only Kaji was in her field of view. Asuka's mood lightened, and she ran to Kaji once he was in her sight.

"Mr. Kaji!" She said gleefully. "What are you doing here? You here to see me?"

Her mood shifted once more when she realized he was having a conversation with Misato. She pouted.

"Of course... here for her again?" She whined as she let go of Kaji. "Can't even keep it to yourselves at this point... at least don't make it obvious that you two are busying each other up when I'm in class! Ugh, and to think I have to live in the place you two fool around in... gross!"

"Asuka, that's not it. We're discussing serious matters here." Misato said to her impatiently, not in the mood to put up with her attitude.

"Yeah right. I'm gonna be in my room... I don't need this." The redhead stated as she walked away.

"Asuka, wait-" Kaji tried telling her.

"No, I've had just about enough of people today. Class was annoying enough because everyone's so god damn bummy. It's pathetic! Last thing I need is to see you two slobbering all over each-"

Somebody else was home. The hallway that lead to her room was momentarily blocked by a shaggy haired boy. It was only after a few seconds that she finally recognized it was Shinji. All emotion escaped her face, as she was almost sure he had already kicked it by now.

Shinji stared back just as emotionlessly as she was looking at him, having been drained by the scene he caused at his father's office.

"You- You're-" Asuka said in disbelief.

It was so strange, almost as if he had risen from the grave. He was gone for a month without any trace and she hadn't heard of updates on his status, and all of a sudden he was back. What was even weirder to her was how much his hair had grown.

"Dumbass..."

Kaji and Misato both rolled their eyes almost in unison with each other. Shinji remained passive despite of Asuka's insult, which only served to make her more angry.

"I'm your Lieutenant, understand? That means you follow my orders, so don't get all hotheaded and rush off on your own! That was a jackass move that could've given those skinjobs our position!" Scolded Asuka, referring back to Shinji's reckless behavior in back Sai-Kuru.

"Enough, Asuka. This is not a good time." Misato warned. She was completely disregarded.

"You were in no shape to play action hero! I swear to god, I tell you to man up and suddenly your ego inflates twofold... and don't you dare talk to me that way again, idiot! I'm not about to let myself get mouthed off by some wuss!"

"That's enough!" Exclaimed their guardian, now having lost signs of patience.

The German Lieutenant stopped talking but continued staring Shinji down. He had still remained quiet.

"Nothing to say, huh?" She said more quietly. "Too good to even give me an answer?"

"You done?" Shinji asked her back.

Asuka scoffed in response.

"When are you gonna quit acting like a little brat?"

He didn't even answer the question as he turned to head back to his room. He knew trying to reason with her wasn't going to do anything so he went back to doing what he was busy with beforehand. She followed him, refusing to go down without sparking some sort of reaction from him.

"Hey I'm not done with you! Come here and-"

Asuka was a little shocked when she found him packing his belongings into a box, one of many. Most of them had already been taped up and were labeled in his name. This shouldn't have bothered her much at all but it did.

"You're... leaving." She said.

Misato and Kaji could do nothing but watch. Even though the girl was often taking her anger out on Shinji, they knew she wouldn't take the news of him moving out kindly. Misato knew there was something there, at least coming from Asuka. It was a part of that day she knew couldn't be avoided.

"You're released from the hospital, after ALL this time... and the first thing you do is run?" Asuka questioned angrily.

"Wasn't my choice." Said Shinji, still not wanting to look in her direction. Of course, Asuka didn't take his honest answer lightly either.

"Well then just who's choice was it if not yours?"

He reverted to giving her the silent treatment.

"Fine! It's just like you to do that anyway, asshole!" Asuka said as she stormed off to her room, forcefully slamming the slide door she maligned so often.

Though he hated hearing her complain about almost everything he was doing, he had to admit a part of him missed hearing her yells. It wasn't that he enjoyed the negativity she almost always threw his way. It was just that it had become the norm. Familiarity was always what kept him grounded. The silence following the argument was nice, but in a way it made him sad.

After all, he did consider her his friend.

"You okay, Shinji?" Asked Misato in a low voice.

He turned and nodded to her before going back to finish his packing. It was obvious that he wasn't, but he wanted to leave it at just that.

After all this time, only after his mother showed to him just how valuable his presence was to others and vice versa did he realize just how much moving over to Tokyo-3 had been good to him. Aside from the trauma every battle he fought had imprinted on him, the overwhelming change had actually made him feel alive for the first time in over a decade.

Shinji finally felt like his life was getting that fresh start he never knew he wanted. It was all fading away now.

The adults decided it was best to give him space after all he had been through. They both remained in the living room, Kaji leaning against a wall while Misato looked down with a sigh.

"I... need a drink." She said, suppressing her own tears.

Kaji was about to light up a cigarette indoors before remembering that this wasn't his home. He felt a little ridiculous at first, having felt a little too comfortable in someone else's home to do such a thing. But as he saw Misato crack open a beer can, memories of their college days together stirred up again.

'I feel at home with her.' He admitted to himself. 'She feels like home.'

Back in Shinji's room, he taped his final box. The room looked empty and soulless, but to him it didn't make much of a difference at all. He sat against the very box he just finished packing and looked up at his ceiling like he had many times before. This was likely the last time he would do so. He wouldn't even get to see all his friends one more time. Not Toji, not Kensuke-

'Mother... what do I do now?'

-and not Rei.