In the immediate years after an averted Third Impact, Earth continued to recover from the environmental and social disaster inflicted by the old men of SEELE. Eventually nature recovered and again blossomed, and once-devastated regions of the world saw the onset of flora and fauna once destroyed by Second Impact and its aftermath. Within a decade after the events of Evangelion, humanity began resettling the southern hemisphere and flourished, although many areas were still off-limits to habitation. Only the Sea of Antarctica remained ecologically dead and off limits.
In 2019 forty-three nations signed the Hakone Accords, formally allowing the Alliance of Free Nations responsibility for global security, reconstruction, and resettlement. Unlike the dictatorial UN and its far-reaching emergency decrees, the AFN largely stayed out of domestic issues and concentrated on recovery as well as exploiting the massive advanced technology base provided by NERV after the wars. The Alliance military coalesced into the Alliance Space Force and by 2029 had established outposts on the Moon, Mars, and the Asteroid belt with expeditions to the outer planets forthcoming.
NERV eventually completed its rebuilding of the GeoFront, sealing off much of the underground locations while it continued to develop its facilities for technological research and building from the massive treasure trove of scientific advances made during the Evangelion project. Nearly a million patents were eventually granted to NERV Laboratories (its new name) and its scientists over the next two decades, allowing NERV to license its technology at minimal fees and greatly accelerating humanity's recovery while also allowing NERV to completely self-fund its own operations. By 2020 NERV had added a research university to its again-sprawling Lake Ashi campus and operated several satellite campuses on Earth and was taking steps to expand its reach into orbital and lunar space as well.
The remaining portions of Tokyo-3 that were still standing were mostly demolished not long after the Jet Alone incident. A single neighborhood of Tokyo-3, Shin-Saitama, left intact from the wars was renamed Ashinoko city and expanded along with the new NERV campus. Most of the area where Tokyo-3 was located was renovated into an Alliance Space Force training base and launch facility.
Jet Alone was disassembled and disposed of within weeks after the assault on Mount Aso. Shoji Tokiwa died in prison a few years afterwards.
After the Jet Alone incident Evangelion units were never again used in an operation. NERV continued to keep two EVA units in a stand-by condition for several years but Angels never returned, and no further Mass Production EVA units or other major threats ever appeared, so by 2022 the number of standby units was reduced to just one: EVA-01. Rei made an annual visit to the GeoFront to sync with Unit 01 and ensure she was still operational, but by 2026 with no apparent remaining threats the decision was made to decommission Unit 01. Quietly the remaining four EVAs were placed in Tesseract status containment and relocated from the GeoFront to the dark side of the Moon, placed in a secure, hidden storage facility. By 2029 Evangelion was considered history.
It goes without saying that there were significant social changes after Third Impact, the largest among them was a rapid increase in the birthrate. Fertility rates among women worldwide shot up over 300% in the first five years after the Angel War, with households averaging between three and six children by 2029, as opposed to less than one in 2014. Conventional birth control methods were markedly much less effective for reasons the scientific community couldn't quite firmly determine.
Additionally, the role of children in society changed remarkably after the events of Evangelion. The world itself had been saved by children, and perceptions of what a child could be capable of changed dramatically. As a result, education changed into a much more experiences-based model and relied much less on the classroom and rote learning. It was at once more demanding of children but also more liberating as well as schooling became individualized to the learner and children were not forced into age-defined classroom groups for hours in a day. There was a strong re-invigoration for instruction of the arts and of sports, and many children were enrolled into what was termed "Piloting" programs that emphasized physical and mental adventures and challenges, in a sense allowing them to live what was thought of as their own pathway to experiencing their own "Evangelion" and often involving some very grown-up activities like operating ships, robotics, and aircraft, and going on adventure expeditions for days or weeks at a time. The pilots of EVA became legendary in youth culture, and even the term "Piloting" would refer to a child living out adventures of a somewhat dangerous yet positive nature.
By 2028 life on Earth was not perfect: there was still poverty, crime, divorce, illness, strife and the whole number of human complications of life and death, but there was a general agreement among most that life was much better than before and that humanity was entering a new "Era of Good Feelings" with optimism about the future and the possibility of travel to and settlement of the solar system for future generations. Simple, everyday life was cherished by many, still with deep memories of the darkness of the years before EVA.
Despite this there were still those who wanted to either bring back the old world or fulfill the broken promises of the old men of SEELE, and the Alliance Intelligence Service had its hands full in countering this. The Lillith Cult survived the assault of Mount Aso and lived on as a loosely bound, shadowy movement spread across the globe. Still others sought their own plans to learn the deep secrets of Evangelion and bend them to their own will. Ryoji Kaji remained as the head of the AIS, relocating the headquarters to Okinawa in 2020 and continuing to lead the fight in the shadows to protect the new but fragile peace the world was experiencing.
Over the years the leading source for the public about Evangelion was Misato, who published several books (including a children's book) about the events and the conspiracy behind it. She was also a common sight on various media for several years to give commentary on the various aspects of Evangelion. Misato still retained a reserve commission at NERV, but spent little time with them once her son Akira got older. Along with Kaji she moved to Okinawa in 2020 and has lived there since, writing books from home and largely enjoying life as much as possible. As of 2028 PenPen still lives with her, though he suffers from chronic liver damage in his older age.
Dr. Gendo Rokubungi is currently Department Chair for Theoretical Physics at the Horikoshi Institute in Tokyo-2. He has a well-earned reputation as the most difficult and feared teacher on campus.
Makoto Hyuga eventually became a general in the Alliance Space Force, splitting his assignments between NERV and operations involving orbital and lunar space. Dr Maya Hyuga remains the chief scientist at NERV Laboratories while raising her two children in the Hakone region.
Hikari Suzuhara had four children, two boys and two girls, and resides in Osaka-2 along with Toji. Hikari is also a corporate officer in SuzuHoraki, the engineering firm created by their fathers and by 2029 the world's leading manufacturer of high-speed rail systems. Toji also worked at SuzuHoraki but left more recently to pursue a second career as a high school and middle school sports coach. Among the former pilots, Toji is perhaps the most open about his time with EVA, having written a best-selling biography and making several public appearances for fundraising and charity. There is a small museum in Osaka-2 with collected items related to Evangelion largely donated by the Suzuharas.
Sakura Suzuhara works as a pediatric nurse at Osaka-2 Children's Hospital. She is also married with two children.
Kodama Horaki eventually graduated from NERV's graduate school of engineering with a PhD, and continues to work at NERV Laboratories. Nozomi Horaki became an illustrator and character designer, primarily for children's books and animation.
Under his stage name of Shinjiro Kaji, Shinji completed his studies at the Mendelssohn Academy in Leipzig and was offered a position as lead cello in the Mozart Repertory Orchestra in Salzburg, Austria. He spend several years there as he continued to build his reputation as both celloist and composer. Highly sought after as a soloist, Shinji and his family later moved to Vienna where he worked with several orchestras while recording his own music and also teaching Music Theory at the University of Music and Performing Arts. Today the world knows him largely from his music, and that he was once the Third Child is a carefully guarded secret.
Asuka left Mendelssohn when she became married, and spent several years at home raising her son Hans. Once Hans turned three, Asuka was offered a commission in the Alliance Space Force and took the position at the rank of Major. Before she was to leave on an outer space mission Asuka discovered she was again pregnant. Not willing to risk losing the child, Asuka had a risky embryonic transfer performed as Rei had volunteered to be a surrogate for her, allowing Asuka to continue her mission. When she returned to Earth, Rei had given birth to Asuka's daughter Greta. By 2029 Asuka was a colonel in the ASF and was assigned command of the Space Force's upcoming mission to Saturn.
Erin and David aka Zummy had twins Jessica and James, and then later another son named Joshua. Erin works for NERV Laboratories as a field director for the mass production MAGI project, and also occasionally as a consultant for the Alliance Intelligence Service on cybersecurity. David Forrestal earned a graduate degree from The New Institute and is currently head of Research and Development for U.S. Robotics Corp. in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Patrick Forrestal works for the AIS as a counter-intelligence agent directly under Kaji, investigating what have been a continuing number of plots to overturn the new order. Mari Illustrious Makinami continues to work for the AIS as a covert field agent. The full nature of her continuing exploits are unknown.
Rei earned her PhD in Genetic Engineering from The New Institute and now works as a researcher for NERV Laboratories satellite campus in Olympic City, Washington state. She mostly works from home, raising her daughter Maddie along with a large collection of house pets. Rei continues to use the alias Reiko Kaji when she attends any scientific or other public events or publishes research. Within the genetic research field she has a well-followed reputation for innovation and insight. In her own words, with her own life and that of her family she is happy and content.
Some final words on the next post. Thanks to all of the readers for your continued support.