Creation began on 09-21-22

Creation ended on 09-22-22

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Different from You: Monsters and Revelations

A/N: Questions and answers lead to different views on relationships and lack of relationships.

They had wanted to examine her again, despite the fact that the last time they did so, she was unconscious and didn't exhibit any irrational behavior over the fact that they were swarming her and asking questions she didn't have answers to. But it was one thing to try and get answers and another to see her reactions to certain things and people.

"Please," Fuyutsuki heard her say when they were escorting her, along with the Third Child, whom she wouldn't let go of, to a different room, seeing Gendo down the hall, keep the monster away from me."

It wasn't the Angels or the Evas she was referring to, he thought in realization as he stood outside the room she was being examined in with Shinji still holding her hand, and then he turned to see Gendo, who was, despite being in the one in charge, forced to keep away. She was referring to Ikari as the monster.

This and the likelihood that the girl addressed the Third Child as her father made the sub-commander suspect that the girl came from a different universe where something terrible happened and it caused her to be frightened by Gendo. And then, there was the object the girl had in her hand that she let go of when she awoke; it was one of those photograph-carrying displays that held two pictures of two people, depicting none other than the girl…and Shinji Ikari.

"…The final results of the DNA test came back," Ritsuko informed him when she came to give him and Gendo the news. "This is impossible, but…DNA doesn't lie, no matter how unusual it seems to be."

"What is impossible?" Fuyutsuki asked her.

"DNA confirms that…the Third Child is the girl's father."

They looked at Shinji in the room, then at the girl. She couldn't have been no more than four or five, maybe even three, but there was no way she could be the boy's kid. There were too many factors involved to have made this a possibility. But, as Ritsuko Akagi stated, DNA didn't lie.

"Are you sure?" He asks her.

"I ran the DNA three times," she reveals. "There was no error in the results. She's his daughter."

Which makes Ikari her grandfather…and she seems afraid of him.

When the doctor inside the room with Shinji and the girl was done taking her blood pressure, he stepped out and walked down the hall and stopped in front of Gendo.

"What is the prognosis?" Gendo asked him.

"Other than mild malnutrition, likely stemming from being somewhere deprived of any sustenance for less than two days, there's no permanent damage to her," he explained, "but she's very attached to the Third Child. She refused to be separated from him, calling him her father…and she kept pointing you out as…some sort of monster."

"Any clue as to why?" Ritsuko asked him.

"Nothing that actually makes sense," he responded. "Whatever happened to her, she's scared of being away from him…and when she saw you (he points to Gendo), she exhibited fear in a heightened reaction. She wet herself."

"So, then…Commander Ikari…is the only person that she's terrified of?" Fuyutsuki wanted to make sure he was hearing this right.

"So far, this accident of hers is a clear truth of her fearful reaction. I wouldn't risk putting them in the same room if she were scared to death of him."

A little girl…scared to the point of likely dying…because of her grandfather. This was unexpected…and completely detrimental to NERV's operational status. As Gendo looked down the hall at the room the Third Child and the girl were in, he pondered how to remedy this; the fact that the girl was related to both of them could hinder everything.

-x-

Not something Misato expected to hear, but she had no room to question or complain about it. It wasn't every day that one finds out that a little girl discovered in an Entry Plug of an Evangelion is the daughter of one of the pilots from another universe. The fact that the DNA results were authenticated and she was starting to see the resemblance between the two left her wondering what could've led to Shinji ending up being someone's parent.

"Did you try to find out who her mother is?" She asked Ritsuko.

"You know how difficult it is to find people that aren't in the database?" The faux-blond replied. "It was hard enough just to locate a match on paternity, and we can't really ask the girl."

"Why?"

"She doesn't know. Her very past is a mystery. It's just…herself and Shinji and Commander Ikari. For all we know, she could be the illegitimate child of a former crush of Shinji's."

Misato knew that was unlikely, as Shinji didn't have any friends from before he ever came to Tokyo-3, so the possibly of a girlfriend was virtually nonexistent.

"Or even a genetic experiment."

"Now, that's just crazy. Only sick minds would go that far."

Ritsuko felt offended. It was mostly because of the minds gathered at NERV that the Evas and MAGI exist to deal with the Angels. And outside of NERV, people of science were always pushing the boundaries of science and technology, dabbling with genetic engineering and so on. Who was to say that genetically engineering a little girl was impossible?

"Where is the girl now?" Misato asked her.

"Shinji took her to the bathroom," she answered. "The gender-neutral bathroom."

-x-

She needed to go to the bathroom…and she only wanted Shinji to help her. The doctors and nurses felt that it was the logical choice that Shinji do so, being the girl's father, however odd it seemed due to the age gap between them. Not to mention that the girl was terrified of Gendo, her alleged grandfather, something Shinji couldn't fault her for; she called him a monster…and maybe he was one.

"So…I'm your daddy," Shinji tried to converse with the girl, standing outside the stall to give her her privacy.

"Mm-hmm," she responded. "You don't…member me?"

That was a difficult question to answer. He couldn't answer because she was from a different lifetime where he was, apparently, her father. He could, however, bend the truth; since they were both in the plug for over twelve hours, deprived of food and oxygen to regulate their bodies, they were both susceptible to different levels of mental health deterioration, which included some memory impairment.

"Her mindset is different because she's from another universe, completely different from this one," the doctor told him. "In her mind, you're her father, and that's all she understands. For now, try to understand her, get her to open up to you, tell you things that may help to know her better. You may be the only person she will trust more than others."

"I'm sorry," he told her. "They said we might both be missing some memories due to being in the Entry Plug for such a long time, so I…don't remember things very well."

"Daddy…sad?"

"Yeah…a little bit. I don't even… I don't remember your name. I'm sorry."

"You wrote it on our picture case that I dropped in the other room. My name is Shado."

"Shado. Pretty."

"Thank you. I'm ready to get up now."

Outside the bathroom, Rei stood in the hallway and wondered if what she had been hearing about this girl was true.

"Hey, Wonder Girl?" She heard Asuka speak to her with that demeaning designation. "Have you seen that idiot with the little girl?"

"They are in the gender-neutral bathroom," she pointed out.

"Both of them? What is he doing in there with her?"

"She needed his assistance in going."

"Boys don't go to the bathroom with girls at the same time! It's demeaning! He'd be looking at her inappropriately!"

"As her paternal caretaker, he would be required to help her in the absence of her maternal caretaker to do the required tasks of aiding the child, regardless of privacy issues."

Even if there was some truth to it, Asuka didn't believe that Shinji, regardless of DNA tests and the fact that the girl was found in the plug with him, was her father. She found it to be ridiculous and unlikely that anyone, especially a girl, would want anything to do with him!

The door to the bathroom opened and out came Shinji and Shado.

"I can't believe that you went in there with her!" Asuka raised her voice, and Shado hid behind Shinji, fearful of the redhead.

"Aah! Angry Harpy Lady!" She gasped. "And the Ghost Girl!"

"Huh?!" Asuka reacted. "What'd she just call me?!"

Shinji could see why Shado reacted the way she reacted; Asuka looked scary to her just as much as his father did. But he didn't understand why she would call Rei a…ghost girl.

"Did she just call me a monster?" Asuka demanded from Shinji.

"Would you lower your voice?" Shinji told her. "You're scaring her."

"Oh, she's scared? What is she, four?"

"More or less."

"Oh, grow up!"

"Back off, Asuka."

Rei noticed that the little girl was definitely scared of the Second Child.

"She referred to you as something called a harpy," she told the redhead. "Metaphorically speaking, that would make sense to one that uses such a designation; you are physically attractive, but you are socially displeasing."

"What?!" Asuka questioned.

"Basically, you're beautiful but not safe to be around if you're angry most of the time," Shinji stated to her and then moved Shado down the hall away from the two. "Look it up. Maybe you'll find why she would call you that if she's afraid of you like she is of her grandfather."

Because Asuka showed up and caused a ruckus, Rei was unable to ask Shinji something that she intended to ask him. Her gaze upon the small child left her feeling…bothered by something. And she was called…a ghost girl by her. Why did she call her that?

-x-

Apparently, along with her name being known, Shado had some recollection of some people that worked at NERV. Just a handful of people, but they had designations meant to be easy for her to recall. Some were positive, but the rest were negative due to her reactions from seeing them.

Kozo Fuyutsuki was the Subtle Elder; this was due to how he didn't raise his voice.

Asuka Langley Soryu was the Angry Harpy Lady; this was because of her temperament and Shado's claim that she wouldn't stop hitting her father, even when he was injured at one point.

Ritsuko Akagi was this Ms. Egghead on account of her being too smart to understand.

Misato Katsuragi was the Boozer Bird Lady; apparently, Shado knew about Pen-Pen and the fact that Misato kept him as a pet.

Rei Ayanami was designated the Ghost Girl; Shado wouldn't say why, though, and Shinji wasn't going to press the matter unless he had to, and without any negativity.

Gendo, however, received the worst designation for specific reasons; Shado referred to him as the Monster…because of how he treated her father and herself.

Shinji found these designations both unusual and very self-explanatory; Asuka was angry most of the time, Rei was like a ghost in terms of her appearance, Ritsuko was intellectual, the sub-commander hadn't raised his voice in the entire time he had been here, Misato was a slob with a penguin, and his father was a monster. But he wasn't sure of why Shado was afraid of his father more than Asuka yet. He would need to find out later.

"…I take it Commander Ikari isn't going to insist that the girl stay in the base?" Misato asked Ritsuko as the faux-blond was updating Shado's profile again.

"Oh, he insisted," she revealed to Misato, "but the sub-commander questioned the likelihood of wanting to separate her from Shinji, which would be tantamount to custodial interference, due to the fact that the girl is afraid of him and sees him as a monster for some reason."

"Well, look at him, Rits. The guy's not exactly Father of the Year. He hardly speaks to Shinji, had him come here just to pilot the Eva, and after he learned that he has a granddaughter, he isn't happy to know that she is more attached to her father and doesn't want anything to do with him. That's basically knowing that he has an extended family that he has no relationship with. It's still crazy to think that, at least in another universe, Shinji has a kid."

"And given the girl's age, he had to have been nine or ten when he fathered her, which should be biologically impossible, unless the universe she's from has people that come of age much earlier than they do here. Or crazier, a woman had her way with him."

"It wouldn't be me; I like to tease him, but that would be crossing a line."

"I doubt you were anything to this girl beyond Shinji's guardian. Plus, I ran your DNA along with every other woman Shinji's had regular contact with and double-checked, and none of you are biologically related to Shado. Whoever her mother is, if she even has one, she's not in the database here."

"She doesn't seem the slightest bit bothered by that, though."

"More than likely due to Shinji being in her life."

However, this might've made things difficult in the long run. Difficult because of Gendo likely trying to exploit the girl for his own purposes. But he probably wouldn't get that far with the girl if Shinji was voted upon by the majority of NERV due to his connection to the girl and the fact that he was fortunate enough to escape the Twelfth Angel before it was about to be bombed into the next world.

Even if we try to hide her connection from the world, there will be gossip, the faux-blond realized; something like this couldn't be kept quiet, not without silencing everyone.

-x-

Burp! Shado burped as she finished her meal in front of Shinji in the hospital room they were using; while it might've had a poor taste, it was better than that IV tube they were both on when they were rescued.

"Hey, Shado?" Shinji asked as he set down his spork on the tray on the bed. "Can I ask you about Ayanami? The…Ghost Girl?"

Shado looked at him and nodded slightly in the positive.

"Why is she…the Ghost Girl? Is it…because of how she looks?"

Shado nodded in the negative; her reason for calling Rei the Ghost Girl had nothing to do with her looks…but there was something other than her appearance that led to the designation.

"Why do you call her that?" Shinji asked.

"Because…the Monster made her go bye-bye," she explained.

"The Monster… Your…grandfather…he made her leave?"

"He hurt the Ghost Girl…and later…she was everywhere."

"He hurt Ayanami…by making her leave? How did he do that?"

Shado raised her right hand up, stuck out her thumb and index finger…and pointed at Shinji.

"He had this dark thing in his hand…and it made a loud noise that hurt my ears. He pointed it at the Ghost Girl…and then he made her leave," she told him, "and then he pointed it at me."

Shinji was in disbelief! He knew his father was an awful person, but he didn't want to believe that he was capable of…of that!

"He was going to make you leave, too?" He needed to know from her.

"Uh-huh," she went, "but then you came and got me. And we fell into this pool of orange juice that smelled funny."

"A pool of orange juice?"

"Where a giant was painted on a red wall up high."

-x-

Gendo stood before Unit-01, which had been repaired and cleaned of the muck that had covered it in the the aftermath of the Twelfth Angel. He wasn't sure of whether or not the Eva had anything to do with the girl, but he suspected that it was possible. The possibility of a brief connection to a different universe where it picked up a stowaway and brought them here…was just confusing and beyond questionable.

"I don't know how this happened…or why it happened," he uttered in front of the Eva, "but this girl is a hindrance if she were to cause problems with her presence. And the Third Child can't be trusted to look after her, even if he is her father. I will have her removed from his watch and placed beyond his reach."

He walked away, never seeing that he had been observed by Fuyutsuki from above; the sub-commander had heard him…and while having the girl sent away from here might've been a good thing to some people…it might've not been to her father.

No, it wouldn't have been good to her father; he'd likely worry about her, fearful of where she would be sent and if he'd ever see her again.

To be continued…