Creation began on 10-11-17
Creation ended on 11-12-17
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Attack and Severance
Gendo had incarcerated Ritsuko Akagi following the destruction of the entire Dummy System. He was upset that the spares were ruined beyond NERV's capacity to restore, and if Rei was compromised, he'd lose one of the necessary pieces he needed to achieve his goal.
"I'll ask you again, Dr. Akagi," he spoke to Ritsuko, who looked away from him, sitting on a folding chair in a small room, "why did you destroy the Dummy System?"
"You know the answer to why," she responded; this was a whining song she had heard from him three times already, so it was pointless of him to ask her over and over again until she said what he wanted to hear from her. "There's no point in asking me for it."
"Why did you do it?" He stressed.
She sighed and uttered, "You know it wasn't all that important to you. You were going to cast it aside, sooner or later, just like how you cast them all aside. I just did it before you could to rob you of the satisfaction. And they know the truth about her now. They know what you both did to her and why she's so messed up and obsessed with the Hitode woman. I pray to the gods that they leave real soon… And I could care less about what you want or how you feel about this all now. You…never had any hopes or expectations of anyone else to begin with. We're all just stepping stones to you, but you won't be able to walk over us of all and get away from your fate. So do what you will…while you're still alive to do so, that is."
Gendo was infuriated, but he didn't let it show. He simply walked away, leaving her in her prison cell.
"And don't expect me to jump the next time you call, either," he heard her say. "Whatever happens next, you're on your own handling it."
The door slid close, leaving the faux-blond alone in her cell. She had a small smirk on her face; at least she was able to hurt him, even if it was only by a small measure.
Whatever happens next…is whatever happens, she thought.
-x-
Shinji sat beside Asuka's medical bed, pondering how to speak to her, wondering if she could even hear her while in her unconscious state.
"Ayanami's a monster," he told her. "We, that is Misato, Mr. Kaji, my mother and I, all think it was her that attacked you. She even tried to kill Kensuke. She killed the last Angel, though, so that means NERV has finished what it was tasked with doing. I even confronted her on her hatred towards my mother…as much as I want to make her stop before she can do something that is inevitable, I'd rather take the path of cowardice and just leave with her before Ayanami can go after her."
Asuka did nothing more than lay there in the bed, almost looking like she were asleep instead of in a coma due to a head injury.
"I can't say for certain that it doesn't really stink," he changed the subject, "but being in a coma…is probably preferable to being dead or suffering from a stroke or some other act of cruelty. At least…I hope that it is. Whatever it is that you're dreaming about in there, Asuka…or even just thinking about in there…I hope that it's peaceful. Things out here are only half and half, otherwise I'd spend more time trying to find the good balance. Please, get well soon."
He got up and turned to leave.
If he stayed for another eight minutes and looked at her right hand, he would've noticed the pinky fidgeting a little.
-x-
"…But if all access to and from headquarters has been restricted," went Maya to Fusei, having been the one to inform the incapacitated young woman of the results of the most recent discovery around NERV HQ, "then why are most of the personnel leaving?"
"They're convinced that there's no further reason to stay since the last Angel is gone. I don't blame them, though. Who'd want to continue being associated with a paramilitary agency?"
Maya couldn't answer that question; NERV only existed to deal with the Angels, and nothing beyond that mattered. What was more than that was that NERV would likely be disbanded and the Evas decommissioned, and anyone that had anything to do with NERV would likely be sworn to secrecy and simply forget about everything that happened for the rest of their lives.
"What about you and Shinji?" She asked her.
"Miss Katsuragi has urged me to leave the base with him and vacate the city," Fusei explained. "It would save us both from Ms. Ayanami and Gendo Ikari if we did…so that's why I'm going to do so, but I need to get those that can't vacate on their own accord out of the Geo-Front and city first."
"Which would be only a handful of people that got injured during the Unit-03 incident, including myself and the Fourth Child, and now the Second Child. You could put our safety in the hands of another personnel member, you know."
"I could…but then, there's likely the possibility of a triage situation if I did so. Everyone that still need medical attention needs to be evacuated from here and relocated to the medical facilities located outside the city."
"Then…how soon can everyone that can't move on their own be expected to be relocated?"
"An hour or two. After which, I'll tell Shinji that we should go and wait for the upcoming storm to pass and calm down."
"I wish you both the best of happiness."
"Thank you."
-x-
It was an odd wonder, the real mother of Shinji Ikari showing up and joining NERV to get close to him, but Kaji found her arrival to be the perfect distraction for all of NERV to focus on while he completed what he had set out to do. This, and the broadcast revelation that Kozo Fuyutsuki did that most likely obliterated NERV's less-than-good reputation, gave the unshaven man the time he needed to procure all the information NERV possessed about what had happened before the Angels showed up…and what was expected to happen after they were dealt with.
"…So, that's why they needed these Evas ready for after the Angels were defeated," he said to himself, preparing to distribute the gathered knowledge to every media outlet across the country to spread the truth throughout the world. "Mission accomplished. Time to pack it all up and get out of Dodge."
With the info traveling across the nation at the speed of digital, the unshaven man closed his terminal and retreated into the shadows.
-x-
The city was clearing out at a steady pace, despite the order coming from Gendo that access to and from the Geo-Front was restricted. Nobody really wanted to listen to him, no matter how much in charge of the paramilitary agency he was in; while he might've had authority over NERV, that was during Angel-based situations, not regular people wanting to get away from the city and the base. And several ambulances arrived to relocate the injured personnel members out of the city limits, something Fusei was making sure happened as fast and as steady as possible.
"You're really taking charge, Dr. Hitode," Fusei turned around and saw Kaji staring at the gurneys full of injured men and women being carted by medical personnel from neighboring cities into several ambulances. "Nice work."
"Thank you," she praised him, but gestured that she still had her Taser in her pocket in case she needed it to defend herself from an uninvited attempt on herself, which Kaji got the message and stood back a good three feet. "Shouldn't you be leaving soon? You must have things to do."
"I had to make sure that Asuka was evacuated first."
At that mention of the redhead, a gurney carrying said girl was carted away onto an empty ambulance in front of the two along with Maya Ibuki and Kensuke Aida.
"Ask nicely and you shall receive in due time," said Fusei to him. "That's all of them that can't leave on their own accord. NERV's medical ward is officially empty."
"Okay, people, let's move 'em out of here!" A woman told everyone else driving an ambulance.
Now, all Fusei had to do was tell her son that they were leaving the base and city. But suddenly, she felt a twitch in her heartbeat, like something awful had happened…or was going to happen soon. It had to be her maternal instincts acting up; what else other than her concerns for her child could cause her to feel a sense of impending dread?
"Tell me, Mr. Kaji," she spoke to the unshaven man, "did you see Shinji before you got here?"
"The last I saw of him, he was with Katsuragi on the bridge in Central Dogma," he answered her, and the single mother went back into the base.
-x-
"Scores of NERV personnel are vacating the Geo-Front," said SEELE 11 to the rest of the council. "None of them seem to be aware of the strike team positioned to take NERV through physical force if the attempt to take the base through the MAGI proves ineffective."
"How many personnel members are left?" SEELE 06 asked.
"Based on the number of people that evacuated the city, the number of personnel remaining in NERV HQ…is less than two-hundred, but that number could decrease, as well."
"This just came to me from one of my sources," went SEELE 03 to the council. "The police from Manazuru of the Kanagawa Prefecture have arrived in Tokyo-3 to arrest Ikari."
"Begin the assault on the MAGI," SEELE 01 ordered. "We'll see what happens."
-x-
The alarms in NERV went off like there was during an Angel attack, but Fusei knew that it couldn't have been that; there were no Angels left to fight. She took out her phone and called Misato's number, hoping that Shinji was with her.
"Katsuragi, go," she heard the purple-haired woman's voice respond.
"It's Fusei," she uttered. "I'm on my way to the bridge. What's going on?"
"It's not good. We just got word that an A-801 Order was just issued no more than eight minutes ago."
"An A-801 Order? What does that mean?"
"NERV's legal protection and authority has been officially revoked. Control over the agency has been transferred to the Japanese government."
"This is sudden. They couldn't just send someone to represent the government and explain why?"
"We only received one warning, and it wasn't much of a warning, either."
"Tell me, is Shinji with you?"
"Yeah, he's right here."
"I got a bad feeling that he was in trouble."
"No, he's fine right now."
Fusei hung up as she entered onto the bridge, seeing Misato, Shinji, Hyuga and Shigeru present.
"Then why does my heart refuse to calm down?" She asked Misato.
-x-
Shojiki Ikari, who should've left with the majority of the NERV personnel, being a civilian, chose to stay and wait for the police to arrive and arrest Gendo. He had to see this through to its conclusion and make sure that those left alive that were responsible for the unforgivable crime were apprehended and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Once Gendo was in police custody, he couldn't get loose and cause further discord towards anyone.
Sirens were soon heard as he saw at least eight police cars arriving within the Geo-Front. They stopped in front of Shojiki and out came seventeen officers.
"Shojiki Ikari?" The female officer asked him.
"Yes, ma'am," he answered her. "Are you here for Gendo Ikari?"
"That's right," said one of the male officers to him. "We have the warrant for his immediate arrest for charges on kidnapping and custodial interference."
"That's good. He's inside the building."
He led them inside the steel pyramid to where Gendo usually resided.
-x-
"…Just how many MAGI were built?" Fusei asked Misato as she was trying to hold off a digital assault on the base through the MAGI.
"Seven NERV branches across the globe equals seven MAGI supercomputers," Misato explained. "This is the original MAGI."
"And some would say that the first is the worst. Hopefully, MAGI Balthasar will hold them off for a while with the new code I implemented."
"Just how long is 'a while'?" Shinji questioned.
"Forty hours, give or take."
"That should be long enough to contact the Japanese government and sort this all out properly," Misato told them. Yet, I don't think whoever wanted to takeover NERV will stop at the MAGI.
Fusei's implemented code to protect the original MAGI was based solely on the other aspects of what made a mother a mother. From her own experience with her mother and her active maternal drive, the young woman's code made Balthasar feel a drive to protect the remaining people within NERV HQ, like they were children in need of their mother's protection, from the dangers of the outside world. If the original creator had installed her own motherly persona into the supercomputer, then the code would make it very protective over the personnel…and even go to the ultimate extreme to protect them.
"Fusei," went Misato to her as she set the keyboard down, "maybe you and Shinji should get out while you still can."
"What about you?" Mother and son both responded, surprising both individuals as the purple-haired woman looked at them.
"It's not like we're going to war with a human enemy," she explained to them. "At least, I hope not. Either way, we're no longer in a position to face the Angels, so there's no reason for the Evas to be used any further. I mean, Shinji, you can walk away from this now. The police are on their way to arrest Commander Ikari for what he and his wife did to you and your family. Go and meet your relatives."
Shinji, as much as he did want to leave with Fusei at that moment, still worried about Misato being here at the base. If it wasn't the idea of people wanting to attack NERV for whatever reasons there were left to have for such, it was what Commander Ikari and Rei Ayanami could do if they weren't apprehended by the authorities. Excluding his friends that were vacated to safety, his mother and she were the only people that he cared about that still resided here and now.
"Don't get killed while you're still here," he told her.
"Believe me, I'd rather die from natural causes than a bullet," she responded, and he and Fusei left.
Then Fusei returned a moment later.
"Seriously, don't get killed," she told Misato, and then ran back out.
-x-
"We're unable to fully take the MAGI," said SEELE 08 to the other members. "It'll be several hours before we can."
"It would seem that this method of assault and the warning NERV was given weren't enough to get them to cooperate," SEELE 01 uttered. "Begin a direct attack on NERV HQ. Disable remaining personnel if possible. Terminate if necessary. Gendo Ikari is the priority target. Eliminate on sight."
-x-
It was a horrid sight to behold. Not only were the tires slashed on Fusei's Prius, its interior had been shot up on the driver's side, rendering it inoperable for driving any distance.
"Son of a…" Fusei uttered, cutting herself off before she finished her sentence.
Shinji walked around the damaged hybrid and noticed a shoe near the back right tire, recognizing it as the type of dress shoe a girl at his school would wear.
"Ayanami," he sighed, picking up the discarded shoe and showing Fusei. "She must've did this with that man."
Although she wanted to express her anger over this possibility, Fusei held her tongue and popped the trunk, pulling out a small, blue knapsack that had been unscathed.
"Shinji, can I ask that you trust me when I say I'll do whatever it takes not to violate the oath I took as a doctor?" She asked her son, opening the knapsack and pulling out a flashlight and three additional mags for her firearm-based Taser.
"I trust you, Mother," he told her, seeing her take out a gun that didn't look like a traditional firearm.
"A next-generation Taser I got a few years back," she explained. "While it has two settings, I won't use the 'kill' setting. The first chance I get, I'm knocking Ms. Ayanami out."
She gave him the flashlight and they walked down the garage back into the base.
Shinji, however, just had a bad feeling that something off-putting was going to happen soon, and the damages done to his mother's car were just an effort to prevent him from leaving the base, despite wanting to the instant the last Angel had been disposed of.
I don't know what I once felt towards Ayanami before I found out she wasn't even much of a person, he thought, keeping close to Fusei as they entered an elevator, but I can't delude myself into believing that she won't cross the line and hurt my mother based on the delusion that she's not my mother. Blood may be thicker than water, but right and wrong are just as thick…and whatever Ayanami's thinking, whatever that man's thinking… They're both wrong.
The elevator suddenly stopped and opened up, revealing several men in dark gear, armed with automatic weapons raised at the pair.
"Aaah!" Shinji gasped, and Fusei, just as frightened, stood in front of her son.
"Do you two know where Gendo Ikari currently is?" One of the men asked them.
"No, sir," Fusei answered, not raising her Taser up; there was no way she was going to gamble on who drew quicker than the other. "Are you going to kill us for not knowing?"
"Our orders are to do so only if necessary," explained another soldier to her. "Only if you resist. You're free to leave, though."
"We actually tried to leave. My car was trashed. If you want that good-for-nothing has-been, I would suggest you try looking for a young woman with blue hair. She might know, since it's likely she's the one who ruined my car."
The soldiers then stood aside and permitted the two to vacate the elevator.
"Why are you looking for that man?" Shinji asked one of them.
"We received a tip that he's trying to trigger Third Impact and destroy the human race," he answered. "Our orders are to kill him on sight. Anyone helping him is to either be apprehended or executed."
"I sincerely doubt that he's getting any help from any number of people," said Fusei to them. "He's not one to trust anyone, whether they help him or not. He's…a sociopath."
"Psychologist?" Another soldier asked her.
"Physician and computer expert."
"And the boy?"
"My son."
-x-
It was unexpected, but it wasn't much of a fight after a tear gas grenade was thrown into the bridge on Central Dogma. The soldiers came in and detained everyone there, which was just twenty people, including Misato, Hyuga and Shigeru and explained that their orders were to execute Gendo, not any of them unless they resisted.
"But the police have a warrant out for his arrest," Misato told them. "If they get him, he'll go to jail, and for a long time for what he and his wife did."
"Then it's a race against the clock to see who gets to him first," said one of the soldiers to her. "Can any of you track him?"
"We don't know where he is," answered Hyuga.
"You mean, none of you personnel members have a tracking chip or anything?"
"No," Misato explained. "When it comes to NERV surveillance, priority is to locate the pilots over other individuals."
"Then we need you to locate one of your pilots," another soldier told her. "A fourteen-year-old girl with blue hair."
"Rei Ayanami. The First Child."
"That's right. We just got a tip that Ikari likes to keep her close by."
Even though she had some sympathy for the girl, Misato couldn't forget that Rei Ayanami was hardly a victim if she had a personal beef with Fusei because of two people that were immoral of the disgrace they inflicted on others. And it was only because of the recent revelations surrounding her background that she couldn't trust Gendo wouldn't use the girl to achieve his grand design soon.
"I might know where to find the First Child," she told them, "and Commander Ikari is likely to be with him, as well."
-x-
Being escorted by three soldiers out of the base felt like a new low for Fusei. At least they hadn't hurt Shinji or herself.
BANG! A gunshot was heard and the soldier behind them dropped to the ground.
They turned around and saw a gun pointed at them.
"Get down!" One of the two remaining soldiers ordered Shinji and Fusei, raising their guns up to shoot their attacker.
Shinji looked up…and saw Rei, holding a smoking gun…with a cold expression disturbingly similar to Gendo's right now.
BANG! BANG! She fired again at the remaining soldiers, hitting them both dead in between their eyes, sending them to an early grave.
"The both of you," she spoke to them, "get up and come with me."
"Ayanami," Shinji responded, unable to believe that she just killed three men in front of them, "what are you doing?"
Pointing the gun at Fusei's head, the albino stated, "Cleaning house."
"Now, that's a poor choice of words to use," Fusei told her; she didn't dare reach for her Taser so long as the gun was pointed at her.
"You kill my mother," Shinji went, not liking this act, "and I'll kill you before you get a chance to pull that trigger a second time."
Rei looked at him and uttered, "Then you'd best listen if you value her life above your own."
-x-
"We've found the First Child," went Shigeru as the cameras in the base caught wind of the girl. "I don't believe this."
Even Misato didn't want to believe it. But she couldn't undo what she saw Rei do to the soldiers Rei shot dead before turning her gun on Shinji and Fusei.
"…If you value her life above your own," they heard the girl say to the boy as she pointed her gun at the woman.
"You follow her, you find Commander Ikari," Misato told the soldiers present.
-x-
Shinji had to keep turning back to look at Rei because he didn't trust that she wouldn't just go and shoot his mother out of spite. So far, all she did was point her gun and tell them which way to go in the halls.
Fusei recognized some of where Shinji and she were being led around and wondered why the girl was herding them down to Terminal Dogma.
"Shouldn't you be taking medication, Ms. Ayanami?" She asked her. "I was informed that you were medicated when you were picked to pilot the Eva."
Rei didn't respond to her question. It was an unnecessary question to even answer.
"I guess that's true, then," Fusei expressed her opinion. "You simply do what he tells you to do. And once he gets what he wants, nothing else will matter. Nothing…and no one."
"You know not what you speak of," said Rei back to her, and Fusei turned her head back to look at the albino girl.
"You think I don't know people like this man? Anyone anywhere will always know something about people like this man. Black-hearted, disrespectful, self-centered…and narcissistic."
"What about megalomaniacal?" Shinji added.
"Yeah, that, too."
"This…is simply the way things must play out," Rei told them.
"And what happens to everyone that doesn't agree with the three of you? Or should I ask what becomes of the people left in the world that don't agree with Gendo and Yui Ikari's differing beliefs? And I say 'differing' because any couple are bound to have different views of what they think should happen to the world."
"You once said that the Eva was your link to everyone, but you never elaborated on it," Shinji reminded the girl; although he wasn't even sure he wanted to know what she meant by that, since his own assumption was that there was no way any Evangelion could link any one person to everyone, no matter what was believed. "I'm beginning to doubt your reason for piloting the Eva as being the truth, because there's no way you could ever be linked to everyone through the Eva. That's impossible."
Still, Rei didn't say much about what she was doing in all this. It was simply unnecessary to say anything about it. Once they reached an elevator, she made them step inside and she pressed a button.
I don't know what is worse right now, thought both the mother and son, that she's listening to two people that should be incarcerated for their crimes or that she's waving a gun at us?
Down, down, down they went to Terminal Dogma. When the elevator reached its stop, Rei forced them down a hall and towards a large, sealed door.
CREAK! The door split opened and pulled back, revealing to Shinji and Fusei the colossal body of Lilith, which, according to Ritsuko, was associated to Rei and all known life on Earth, a source of life or worldly mother, similar to how Adam, the designated First Angel, was viewed as the very father of all other Angels after him.
"Welcome," they heard the voice of Gendo speak to them, turning to see him near the edge of the large pool of LCL. "Now that you're here, we can put an end to all of this."
"Put an end to all of this?" Fusei questioned. "To all of what, exactly? The Angels are dead, the city has been emptied of both civilians and NERV personnel, and the base is being overrun by soldiers tasked with finding you, their orders to kill you on sight. You can't walk or talk your way out of the situation, Gendo Rokubungi. The police are likely on their way to deal with you, as well. You should own up to your faults and face the consequences for what you and your wife did."
"I refuse to be locked away for something I wanted nothing to do with," he told them, and took out his gun and raised it at Fusei's head. "And you. You were supposed to be dead when Yui took him. You couldn't just be dead instead of looking dead? Your presence and refusal to keep away from the Third Child has caused nothing but interference!"
Fusei frowned at Gendo, wishing she could reach for her Taser and paralyze the man before he could think of killing either herself or Shinji. Even when he was involved in such a crime, he refused to claim his share of the responsibility for the harm he inflicted. He thought that was exempt from any blame. But she knew that nobody that committed such atrocities were exempt. Nobody was permitted to wash their hands of this.
"What's so special about him to you, anyway?" Gendo asked her. "He's pathetic. He's been this way ever since we took him. Weak, stubborn, questions everything, nothing worth wanting to know or understand about. He never even does what he's told."
"That's your opinion of him, which, even if it's a direct result of his improper upbringing at the hands of you and your in-laws, really means nothing to me," she responded. "He's still my son, and I still want to know everything about him. His likes and dislikes, his hopes and ambitions, even his fears, no matter how minute, childish or even trivial they might be. You and your wife might've robbed me of my past of him as a baby all the way up to the present, but I refuse to let you rob me of a future with him just because you have a depraved god complex and an unwillingness to accept those around you. If you want to be left alone in the world, I would recommend becoming a reclusive hermit, otherwise just get thrown into solitary confinement somewhere. Don't drag everyone else into your drama just because you hate the way things are."
Shinji turned to face Rei, seeing her itching to pull the trigger on her gun at his mother's head.
"Don't you dare, Ayanami," he warned her.
"How can you stand to listen to her voice?" She questioned. "How can you be willing to walk away from NERV with her?"
"That's my choice. I chose to want to leave with her. If you can't accept that, that's on you."
"Well, we can't permit you to leave."
She then aimed her gun at him, which, while raising his sense of tension, didn't make him want to flee for his own life.
"Gendo Ikari!" A man's voice shouted, and a dozen men came into the room, guns raised and aimed at the megalomaniac and the albino girl. "Don't move!"
"Drop your weapons!" Another soldier ordered.
"Shoot him!" A third soldier yelled.
Taking a risk with the distracted pair, Fusei grabbed Shinji and got on the ground.
BANG, BANG, BANG! Bullets were unleashed on Gendo, who didn't so much as try to make a run for his life.
Shinji looked at him…and saw an orange, almost-transparent octagonal wall in front of the man.
An AT-Field? He was confused, and saw something beyond grotesque: On Gendo's left hand was some sort of…eyeball protruding from the palm.
Then, without any hesitation, Gendo shot at the soldiers.
"Sick," went Fusei, knowing an abomination when she saw it, and the thing in Gendo's hand was just as hideous as he had been since the day she met him after discovering that he and his wife were the culprits responsible for taking Shinji.
"Police!" A new voice shouted. "Don't move!"
"Gendo Ikari, you're under arrest!"
Three police officers came in and aimed at Gendo.
"Drop your weapon!"
But Gendo just got angrier and shot at the police.
"Might I suggest we try and get out of here?" Fusei asked Shinji.
"Yes," he answered back.
Rei, as she was distracted by the soldiers and police that came for Gendo, turned to see Shinji and Fusei getting off the ground and trying to run towards the entrance.
"Stop!" She shouted, raising her pistol up at them.
Fusei, knowing it was between life and death for herself and Shinji, quickly ran towards the albino girl and shoved her into the LCL pool.
Rei lost the gun as she had to swim back to the edge to climb out of the LCL.
Fusei and Shinji ran out while the police and soldiers continued to shoot at Gendo, who couldn't fire any more bullets at them because he ran out in his gun.
"Get back here!" He shouted at them, but they had escaped.
Slash! The AT-Field of Adam went erratic and instead of being defensive became offensive for Gendo, sending the police and soldiers off their feet with the feeling that their internal organs had been mutilated beyond recognition.
As she climbed out of the LCL, Rei couldn't believe that an unnecessary person had assaulted her and got away with Shinji. And worse was that the boy still left with her.
-x-
"…Was that the best way to push a person into a pool?" Shinji asked Fusei as they ran through the hall.
"Only if they know how to swim," she answered.
"Doesn't exactly fit into the oath you took, but I'm okay with that."
But as soon as they ran down a different corridor, the boy began to feel a different level of woe. It felt like danger was approaching.
Fusei felt the same sense of danger nearing.
A light at the end of the hall caught their attention and they came out onto a platform…in front of Evangelion Unit-01.
"Ugh," Shinji and Fusei both shuddered.
The purple Eva was no different from an ill omen of the cruelest of existence. An omen…of Hell brought to Earth.
"Mother," Shinji uttered, "I don't ever want to pilot anything like this ever again."
"I agree with you," she told him. "Accursed demon. Let's get out of here."
Neither wanted anything further to do with the Ikaris' work for as long as they had left to live.
Creak! They heard something, like a large gear moving or a bolt being tightened more than necessary.
They turned towards the Eva. Something seemed different about it, like its head had turned slightly or something else entirely.
"Shinji," went Fusei, letting go of Shinji's hand, "now's a good time for you to run."
The boy got the same feeling that they both needed to run.
"Not without you," he told her, refusing to lose her to anyone or anything. "I can't lose you a second time in my life."
Not even that could silence the woman's maternal instincts.
"Crazy ensues," she told him, and grabbed him, surprising him with how strong she was.
"Whoa!" He gasped, and Fusei ran like Hell out of the chamber.
Creak! He saw Unit-01's head turn, its eyes glowing.
Crash! Fusei felt the floor tremble and ran faster, despite feeling like her son's weight was weighing her down by some ninety pounds, which to her meant that despite eating much, Shinji was still a bit underweight by at least some twenty pounds.
They were out of there before she felt like the walls cracked under pressure.
-x-
With JSSDF soldiers and the police themselves after him, Gendo knew now, more than ever, that he needed to complete his agenda and be reunited with Yui, putting this all behind them for good.
"Rei," he told the albino girl, "we shall begin… Aaurgh!"
He felt a blow to the back of his head, knocking him down.
"I will find Ikari-Kun first," Rei expressed. "I will find him and dispose of the unnecessary woman he won't part from."
She walked out of the chamber and left the unconscious man surrounded by the corpses of his victims.
-x-
"Unit-01 has activated!" Hyuga announced on the bridge, alerting Misato and the soldiers that were there.
"What?!" Misato gasped. "Who's piloting it?"
"Nobody! There's no plug inserted! It's unmanned!"
On the screens, Unit-01 was breaking free of its restraints and moving towards the catapult system, tearing away sections of wall and ground to advance further.
"Do we have eyes on the Third Child?" Misato questioned.
"No, but we have eyes on the First Child," Shigeru responded. "She's in the hall. It looks like she's heading towards the cages."
"There are several more soldiers heading towards Terminal Dogma with more police," added Hyuga. "They're arguing over whose jurisdiction takes precedence over Commander Ikari."
"They can do that after they've properly detained him," Misato sighed, checking the ammunition for her pistol. "Keep me updated if you find where Shinji is."
She then left the bridge, considering herself rather foolish for going to do what she was going to do. But what other alternative did she really have? Does she just wait around Central Dogma for the authorities to apprehend Gendo and incarcerate him for his multitude of crimes…or does she just go to find Shinji and Fusei and make sure they get out of NERV HQ before something worse than what was already happening happens?
Even when there are people that want to bring about the end of the world we know, there are just a few people that spend their final moments trying to do something right, she thought bitterly, hoping that she didn't have to shoot anyone.
-x-
"…Uh, I think you can put me down now, Mother," said Shinji to Fusei as she carried him down the hall, far from the active Eva.
"Okay, okay," she responded, slowing down and catching her breath, putting her son down. "I didn't see anything, but what did you see?"
"The Eva moved on its own," he revealed. "It just moved on its own."
Of course, they both knew that it wasn't entirely accurate, that the Eva's actions were due to something more dangerous than any glitch in some system.
"Tell me something," he spoke. "Do you know how to hot-wire a car in case we have to get away?"
"Only because your aunt showed me once," she answered, "and only if I had no other alternatives."
Fusei then reached for her Taser and checked the ammunition again.
"Yet, I'm beginning to get the feeling that the powers that be, not just the actions of a miserable couple and a girl that hates me beyond belief, don't want us to leave, even though it's what we want to do."
"Then those powers that be are very cruel towards you. You have a handful of people that want to end the world…and you have most that just want to see the next day."
"And what do you want, Shinji? What does your heart desire?"
Helping her back onto her feet, Shinji answered, "To walk away from this and meet the rest of the family I've yet to see."
They resumed their trek to wherever this hall led, hoping that it would get them away from the violence they were swept in.
-x-
It was just awful, seeing the boy with her, and so heartbreaking to see him want to be with her rather than with them. But even as the soul of the Eva, Yui refused to let these…detours and minor setbacks deter her from accomplishing what she had set out to do. For as long as the Eva still existed, she refused to back down simply because of a life choice she made fourteen years ago had an error she didn't realize until it came back to bite her head off. In her mind, she wasn't wrong about anything, and in her mind, the teenage girl was dead, not asleep or unconscious, so she didn't need a guilty conscience or something of the sort. If this all panned out for them, nothing that had been committed in the past would matter.
And yet, seeing Shinji with the woman that breathed life him into infuriated her because, after all this time, she thought she was dead. And worse was that this revelation had destroyed any semblance of a connection between herself and Shinji, making his presence within the Eva all but entirely worthless.
Everything happens as it must, she thought, willing the Eva to tear through reinforced steel walls to reach her objective closer. We no longer need to follow the law of the old gods. We can escape from the bindings of our past and reshape the future. But we need to break free from our shackles first.
In her mind, the original agenda had been compromised by factors beyond her control, but could be adapted to suitable methods to ensure acceptability. If she and Gendo couldn't have any children of their own due to an injury she suffered from before they met, then they just needed someone who could fill in the role of their child. The devastation caused in Tokyo by Second Impact had been an unexpected bonus for their changed plans, since it caused so many deaths…and left so many orphaned children as a consequence. This was what led them to finding Shinji and taking him from what they had thought was a life without a family; even she had thought that the girl, this…Fusei Hitode…was as dead as the other people in the understaffed and overburdened hospital was or was going to be soon.
She will regret coming back, she swore, intending to make sure the woman she had thought was dead was worse than dying. I will make sure she can never interfere again.
To be continued…
A/N: Dang, if I constantly do things that make Yui Ikari out as one of the bad guys, it's only because she's as equally wrong and black-hearted as Gendo is for using Shinji in such a cruel manner. If you think I should create another alternate story where she isn't Shinji's mother, please suggest who you think should be his mother in a future story and I'll let you know if I have seen what you suggest.