The day started early, with the sun coming over the horizon and gleaming onto the city of Osaka-2. Every staff member of ZWEITE was hard at work, quickly readying for the test that was scheduled to take place the next day. The Prisoner was already on his way. His cell had been detached from the prison building's architecture and placed onto the back of a large truck, tied down by hundreds of ropes and secure clamps that latched onto the bottom of the portable room. Down the roads the Prisoner went, without even being told of where he was going.
Built into the shores of Lake Biwa, Osaka-2 rivaled that of the past megacities such as Tokyo-3 and Tokyo-2. Instead of being a replacement for a desolate city, it had been built to be NERV's base of operations if anything serious were to occur in Tokyo-3 and destroy the geofront. As they had once feared, they did come to use Osaka-2 for its intended purpose.
From inside the city's giant wall it was easy to see the scars left on the Earth by the evas and angels. The ground was tinted red, and explosion craters dotted the lands; some of them even formed large lakes. From over a distant mountain, the first of the planes guiding the Prisoner's transport came flying into the city. They radioed in, telling ZWEITE command of the Prisoner's arrival.
Everyone hoped with bated breath that the child that had once tried to kill all of humanity wouldn't fail them in their efforts to do the exact opposite.
On the edge of Osaka-2 a truck parked itself right in front of a gate that loomed over all vehicles that passed under it. The driver requested access to the city, and the operators on the other side granted him it. To many it was terrifying that the Prisoner was in a population center once more. To ZWEITE, it was more of an opportunity.
News cameras and reporters stood at the entrance to the parking lot, down the road, and up as close to the entrance to the base as they could. They were ready to interview the man they had all hated for so long. A crowd formed quickly, and it became so large that the streets grew crowded. Once the Prisoner's transport finally arrived it moved at a snail's pace up to the curb. Directly overhead the sun beamed down onto the Prisoner as he exited the vehicle, staring not at its light but rather his own shadow.
"Are you really responsible for the attempted Third Impact?"
"Why are you returning to work with ZWEITE?"
"Do you support your own life sentencing?"
Reporters and questions were hurled at him. Even hiding his face under his mask and looking down, the people still wanted answers from him. He tried to ignore them best he could, walking up the pearly white stairs.
"Coward!"
"Idiot!"
"You killed my family, you bastard!"
More civilians climbed past the flashing lights and reporters who were too distracted by writing notes into their small books. They yelled at him, accusing him of unspeakable acts.
"Rapist!", they yelled. "Rot in hell", they yelled. "Die, you idiot!", they yelled.
"I would if I could!" He finally broke. The man known as Shinji Ikari broke out of his Prisoner persona, even if just for a moment. He stared at the audience before him, all watching silently. They hadn't expected the seemingly weak man to actually acknowledge them. Just then, the glass door slid open, and Dr. Akagi came outside.
"Come on." She offered her hand to Ikari. He took it, stepping up the final stair into the closed off building.
Inside, the ZWEITE base was empty of anyone. No guards stood around in the lobby, and neither did any working employee.
"Hello," Dr. Akagi rubbed her hand on her lab coat in disgust. "You are Ikari, Shinji, designated Prisoner a1. I'm sure you have already gathered why you're here. I will not be providing any questions with answers."
"I understand, Doctor." Ikari obliged.
The doors opened behind him, and two heavily armored guards came in as the sounds of a yelling crowd worsened and quieted back down.
"I want you two to transport Prisoner a1 to his room quickly. The longer the people out there see him the worse they'll get." Dr. Akagi demanded of them.
"Yes, Dr." The guards both said in unison. They grabbed Ikari by his arms on both sides, practically carrying him because of how light he was. On the far side of the lobby they reached a hall filled with elevator entrances, and hit the button to go down. Instantly, the door in front of them opened, and they slid in.
Ikari hadn't been able to see the ZWEITE skyscraper from his portable cell, but when he had stepped inside it he had the feeling was back in NERV again. The large, technology-filled rooms with huge computers and metal tiled walls gave the impression that ZWEITE was nothing more than a copycat. Once he had plunged below ground into the negative levels of the building, the notion was only amplified.
A huge open space almost a quarter of the size of the city sprawled out from the glass elevator shaft Ikari traveled down. Hallways were turned into streets, and miniature buildings were shaped up and out from the ceiling and floor. The entire complex looked like a cavern filled with stalactites and stalagmites.
Further down Ikari went, and soon his elevator stopped right into a platform only about thirty feet off the ground. The doors opened, and the guards dragged him outside. He knew that it wouldn't be long before he was shoved back into another cell.
…
Monika hopped out from the truck after it pulled away from the still enraged crowd. It had pulled around the corner and parked in an alley. She said goodbye to the driver, and found herself walking back to the entrance. By the time she got back to the building the crowd had seemingly only grown larger, making it impossible for her to enter the normal way. She sighed, knowing she had to take the back entrance.
When she finally got into the ZWEITE HQ it had been some time since the Prisoner had been dropped off. Through the building she wandered, looking for Dr. Akagi. She found her sitting in the lobby, drinking tea.
"Doctor?"Akagi looked up to see Monika, tired. "I'm sorry, I had to go through the side way to get in."
"I get it, don't beat yourself up."
"I guess those people don't really like the Prisoner, do they?" Monika still stood, not thinking to sit down.
"I don't think any of us do.", Akagi coughed, choking on her tea. "The… the- the whole operation seemed to go as planned. Nothing too major, and the Prisoner is completely in our facility now."
"Yes, ma'am."
"I want you to do me a favor. We hadn't written this anywhere, but something came up."
"What is it?"
"My- I want you to do a quick psyche report on Prisoner a1. We need to see what his current state is, and what he thinks of being here. Does that sound fine?"
"Oh, oh yes." Monika, still tired from the long day of transporting the prisoner, took up the task without even wanting to.
"Alright. His room is HH-7 down in level -14." She handed Monika a slip of paper, detailing the room number, passcode, and everything needed to track down the Prisoner.
"Oh, wow, he's down in the negative area?"
"Where else would we put him?" Akagi took a sip from her tea, and Monika nodded. She left without another word.
…
The room wasn't white like his last cell. It was black. Streaks of bright red lined the middle section of the walls and the floor had a small red diamond that lit what there was to see. A slab jutted out from the far end of the room, and held a black mattress inside it along with a pillow; there was no blanket. The Prisoner sat on it as the guards clipped his ankle bracelet to a chain on the wall. They left a moment later, and he was left in the dark.
What seemed like hours passed, but the Prisoner had no way of telling time. A minute may have flown by, or a couple of hours. To him, time wasn't even a concept; it was rather something he had once remembered.
"Hello, is this Prisoner a1's cell?" A voice came through the speaker on what was the door, but it was impossible to tell where it was since it blended into the wall.
The Prisoner didn't respond.
"You don't have to answer; I know you're in there." The voice stated.
"What do you want?" The Prisoner asked.
"Are you… are you Shini Ikari, Prisoner a1."
"You said I don't have to answer that." He retorted.
"You don't, but I'm trying to comfort you. Can't you at least appreciate that?"
"No". He responded, blatantly.
The voice on the other end took a moment to respond.
"Well, I'm Monika. Norman- Monika Norman. I'm here to ask what your views on the AC Project are."
"I don't really want to speak to the black. Come in here, face to face, and then I'll talk."
It took a minute, but the door slid open, and through the bright white emerged Monika. She was visibly scared to be back with the Prisoner, but she composed herself.
"What do you want?" The Prisoner repeated himself.
"Well, uhm, what do you think about being here? Being at ZWEITE?"
"You dragged me in here against my will, strapped me against the seat, locked me in a dark room, and want to know how I feel about it?"
"Yes. Yes, we do." Monika shook, knowing that the Prisoner was going to have another mental breakdown. "Uhm, well, you do recognize me, correct?"
"I do."
"So, I'm sure you… know why you're here?"
"Obviously. Why wouldn't I? Even after I showed you how unstable I am, I'm still brought back and used as nothing more than a toy." The Prisoner paused. Monika thought that he was staring directly at her, but when she moved out of the way, he still stared directly at the wall. "I'm going to be forced to pilot that beast again. I'm going to be nothing. I… can't believe this."
"Please, calm down."
"Calm down?! Calm down?! Get the hell out of my cell! I don't want anything to do with you, or Akagi, or ZWEITE, or misa-" The Prisoner caught himself, thinking back to when he was younger. Back in the days he worked under NERV, he had run away and been locked in rooms just like this one. He remembered back to his arguments with his caretaker Misato, and how he always broke down during them. He couldn't bring himself to continue yelling at Monika, and he sat and cried right there.
"Oh, god. Misato, please! Misato, please! I promise, I'm not a coward! I- I'm not running away!" He cried, his tears filling up in his mask and falling out from the underside.
Monika backed out, confused and scared about the ugly-crying man.
'God dammit,'she thought to herself, 'this kid will never be ready to pilot'.On her paper she wrote down a simple sentence:
"Prisoner a1 shows clear signs of trauma and is not capable of piloting an evangelion".
…
"So, I take it that it went fairly well?"
"No, not at all" Monika threw the clipboard onto Akagi's desk.
"Hmph. Just as I thought." She smirked as she read it.
"You don't think that's concerning? We're basing the entire AC Project on that insane kid? We should just give up at that point; it seems like we don't need him for this." Monika pleaded.
"I don't want to hear that. Prisoner a1 is a vital aspect of this plan." Akagi fought back.
"Really? What part is he gonna play in the cleanup?"
"Monika, think about it. What… what if the angels come back? Or what if we face an ever more dangerous threat? He's the only experienced pilot we have, and the only one who knows how to actually be a pilot in the first place for that matter."
"Then why not train new ones?" Monika questioned Akagi.
"Don't push me. I know what I'm doing. Prisoner a1 is going to be used for the AC Project, and that's final. Once we complete it, I'm sure we will have him immediately locked back up."
"Can you at least consider using the ZWEITE School board for new pilots?"
"The college students? We already have a full list of volunteers."
"So why use the Prisoner?"
"They'll be working side by side. I don't want you to worry, I have this all under my control." Akagi panicked that she would leak the details of the SEELE Remnant's plan.
"Ok, doctor." Monika rose from her chair to leave. As she opened the door, Akagi interrupted her.
"Did he… happen to say anything about people who've died? You said… trauma on here and I'm just curious." Akagi tried to push Monika for answers.
"He was crying about someone named Misato. I believe she was-"
"Operations director at NERV. Yes, I was close to her. She died in the self-destruction of the geofront." Akagi laughed for a moment. "I'm surprised he still cares for someone, let alone her." Akagi swiveled around in her chair, getting up and going around her desk. "Alright, it's time for you to leave. I've got to make a call. I'm sorry for having such a heated argument, but you must realize that he's necessary in our plan."
"No, no. I do realize, and I apologize." Monika put her hand up to her chest.
Akagi smiled, and shut the door loudly.