Creation began on 06-03-18

Creation ended on 08-16-18

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Family

Shizuoka Memorial Hospital

Asuka Langley Soryu walked down the hall to the recovery ward where she heard Misato was, thinking the woman was injured after she herself had been admitted to this place only four days ago, only to see that said purple-haired woman was standing outside a private room, unscathed.

"Misato," she called out to her. "What the heck happened over there?"

"A lot happened at NERV when we were preparing to leave the base," she explained, somewhat cryptically. "The world almost ended when things got from bad to worse."

Asuka looked through the observation window beside them and looked at the young woman in there that seemed sedated.

"What exactly happened?" She iterated, wanting clarity, wanting to know the outcome of the situation that had been, without a doubt, tragic.

-x-

Escaping Terminal Dogma

There was only twelve minutes left before the entire base detonated and every last trace of NERV was buried, along with anyone that was unable to get away. Twelve minutes before the paramilitary agency was destroyed beyond any degree of salvaging.

Misato had arrived just in time to watch as Rei Ayanami was absorbed into Lilith, completing her form and breaking free of her restraints.

"Shinji! Fusei!" She yelled, running over to the pool, ignoring the fact that Lilith was leaning over and her feet falling in, the mask slowly dropping away from her head. "Shinji! Fusei!"

Deep beneath the surface of the pool, Fusei, sickened by the stench and taste of the LCL ever since discovering that it was really the blood of Lilith, reached out for Shinji as he sank further than she did.

I'm coming, Shinji! Her mind yelled out, grabbing his right leg.

Shinji, barely conscious, felt himself slipping from the world. He didn't even feel his mother grabbing his leg. He could still register the pain his body felt from getting shot, but everything else was registering as something else entirely. Sight and sound were fading away and he knew something was wrong, but he couldn't do anything about it.

Is this…dying? He wondered, feeling himself being turned or rotated, seeing an obscured face. Who is this? I can't remember.

His mind recalled a day where he was reprimanded by his aunt for fighting with his cousin (at least, back when he believed that they were his aunt and cousin)…and the woman expressed her disgust towards the boy because she claimed he was just like her sister and brother-in-law. Then, a memory of rain and false accusation over a bike left in a garbage heap came to mind. The children that offered false friendship, the adults that spoke behind his back about that bad man and his wife, it seemed as though his very childhood was that of pain and the inability to connect or relate to others.

Why now? He thought, and a possible explanation came to mind. Is this true? Your life flashes before your eyes as you know you're going to die?

If this was true, then Shinji knew something from his own past…and it was nothing but hurt because everyone were led to believe that he was a terrible couple's child. This meant he was going to die because of them.

A bright light shone in front of his eyes, revealing a face contorted by a sense of dread. He felt a series of small hits to his chest. Was someone kissing him repeatedly after each series of hits? Shinji couldn't get his thoughts together, and he couldn't see much of anything beyond the light.

"…Shinji…on…here…promise you…please…" A voice uttered, but he couldn't hear it.

Slowly, his eyes closed…and he found himself elsewhere…in front of a man that looked familiar.

"Shinji," he spoke to him, his voice that of kindness and love, "don't give up on life just yet. Your mother still needs you. She spent your whole life trying to find you. She can't lose you now."

The man didn't just look familiar to Shinji; he looked as though he were an older teen version of himself…and remembered something that Fusei had told him.

"Are you…Genshi-teki? Genshi-teki Katagiri?" He asked him.

"I am, Shinji," the older boy answered. "It's nice to meet you after so many years, but you can't stay here. You have to go back."

"Am I dead?"

"Not yet, but you're close to being so."

"Ayanami, the girl that threatened to shoot us if we turned to leave, she shot us. Then, she threw me into this pool. I don't know what happened after that."

"Your mother pulled you out the pool and is currently trying to revive you, which is why you need to go back to her. You can't stay here."

"But…there's something I need to know, please," Shinji begged his true father, feeling himself slipping away from where he was right now. "Will we be able to get away from the threat on our lives? Will we see you again?"

As a gathering of mist came and crept up from the ground around them, Genshi-teki simply smiled and slowly approached his son…and then hugged him for the first time in his life.

"We'll meet again someday, but for now, you have to go back and live. Live for your mother, for me and for yourself."

Then, he felt himself losing consciousness again…and blacked out.

And then, he coughed.

Cough, cough! He spat out the LCL that was in his lungs as his head turned to his right, air getting into them to revitalize him.

"Oh, God," he heard Fusei gasp, holding his upper body up to herself. "Breathe, Shinji. I got you."

He still felt some pain in him, but having her hold onto him was enough to alleviate his discomfort.

"Come on, you two," he heard Misato, "let's get out of here."

"Stay…" They heard Rei's voice, struggling to speak. "Stay…"

Slam! Unit-01 had slammed Unit-02 onto the ground, its horn broken off its armored head.

The red Eva struggled underneath it to continue its Dummy System programming, but the purple one was clearly stronger and more vicious.

Fusei suspected that this had something to do with how Yui's contact experiment was more extreme than Asuka's mother's contact experiment had been; the former didn't fight back against being absorbed into the incomplete behemoth while the latter had installed would-be safety measures to keep absorption from happening, only to still suffer.

I'm sorry, Ms. Soryu, she apologized to the woman trapped within Unit-02.

The red Eva still struggled to fight back against the purple one, until said Eva snapped the red one's neck, defeating it.

"Fusei?" Misato went, helping the woman carry Shinji out.

"Yeah, Misato?" She responded.

"We're done for, aren't we?"

Looking back and forth between Unit-01 and Lilith, the young mother worried over which fate was the worst one acceptable over the other: Stripped of individuality and free will…or blown away while buried under several thousand tons of steel and concrete. Either way, neither fate was a guarantee of getting away from NERV.

"Attention," the machine voice of the base uttered. "You now have two minutes to reach minimum safe distance from the Geo-Front. Repeat: You now have two minutes to reach minimum safe distance from the Geo-Front."

Even if we were able to get away from these two, we wouldn't get out of here in time, thought Misato, desperate for other alternates to their situation.

"I think we are done for, Misato," Fusei answered the woman's question regarding their fate.

"Self-destruction of NERV HQ shall commence in ten seconds," the voice informed them. "Nine…eight…seven…six…"

Fusei held Shinji and told him to close his eyes.

Misato decided to close her eyes and prepare for the end of her life.

"Four…three…two…one."

The base was set to pop…but nothing happened. There wasn't even a rumbling noise elsewhere within the base. They waited for a while longer, but nothing occurred. No explosions, no crashing sounds, nothing. The base was still standing.

"I don't believe this," Misato uttered, frustrated. "Everyone must've been deceived."

"What do you mean?" Fusei and Shinji asked her.

"Everyone was informed that if it came to it, NERV HQ was wired with explosives to destroy it should any Angel ever make it down here. But if the countdown was set and nothing has happened, then it means only thing: There aren't any explosives or the explosives are just duds."

"Duds?" Fusei questioned, angered. This is bullshit! That means the only fate worse than Human Instrumentality is just dying down here trying to get away.

-x-

Ritsuko didn't flee the base, deciding to stick around until Misato Fusei and Shinji had gotten away, but the base didn't explode, even though it was supposed to.

"Goddamn you, Gendo!" She shouted, grabbing a keyboard and typing some code segments. "You lied to us! The base was never meant to self-destruct! You just wanted to scare us, you arrogant bastard!"

Now that the truth was exposed and NERV HQ wasn't going to explode even if they waited until her thirty-seventh birthday, Ritsuko had to find a way to remedy the situation Misato, Fusei and Shinji were in…and maybe she knew of a way.

-x-

Unit-01 was about to grab the three when Unit-02, despite its neck being broken, rose back up and growled at the purple behemoth.

"Unit-02 is still alive?" Fusei asked, confused. "How is this possible?"

"I haven't the slightest clue," Misato responded.

Ring-ring! Misato's phone rang and she answered it.

"Get out of there while you still can," she heard Ritsuko's voice. "I'm sending in Unit-03 to engage Unit-01 and buy you some time to escape."

"But Unit-03 wasn't checked for any residual contamination!" She gasped.

"Actually, it was," Fusei revealed. "I helped to check it. It's clear of contamination."

The red Eva grabbed its head and snapped it back into place before charging towards the purple Eva.

"Grraurgh!" It howled, its arms outstretched as it prepared to engage Unit-01.

CLASH! They collided, but Unit-01 held its ground against Unit-02.

Shinji looked up at Lilith, seeing that its head had now taken on the features of Rei Ayanami, whose face was just an imitation of Yui Ikari's, and gasped.

"We need to go," he told them. "Now!"

Lilith turned to face them…and smiled. She reached down towards them with her right hand.

"Aaah!" Misato gasped, but all three were grabbed by the colossal being.

"Stay," she spoke in Rei's voice.

CRASH! A section of Terminal Dogma's walls fell forward, revealing a Dummy Plug-operated Evangelion Unit-03.

"Rrraurgh!" It roared, running towards them.

Fusei and Misato closed their eyes, not wanting to see what happened next.

Crunch! Something that sounded like it was being broken was heard, and Shinji felt something wet splatter across his face.

The three looked…and saw Unit-03 had ripped Lilith's arm from its body.

"Urgh!" They all groaned, disgusted.

The black Eva then grabbed the hand of the severed hand and ripped away the fingers before said limb developed a death grip, freeing them.

"Way to go, Fusei," Misato told the woman, referring to her coding in the Dummy System.

"Praise later," she responded, helping Shinji to walk. "Run now."

Unit-01 knocked aside Unit-02 and proceeded to approach the three again.

BASH! Unit-03 tackled the purple behemoth to the ground and permitted the three to get away.

"Stay!" Lilith shouted, reaching down with her left arm. "Stay…and die."

"Gah!" Shinji coughed.

Again, the three were grabbed by Lilith and held up in the air.

"Shinji, look at me," Fusei groaned, seeing him cough out blood. "Shinji!"

"This…hurts," he uttered weakly.

Then Lilith suspended her arm over the LCL…and dunked the three into it where she tightened her grip, intending to end their physical lives while their souls would be the first to be absorbed into her!

It didn't matter if LCL was a breathable liquid while conscious, as Fusei could see her son's head tilting back as he was being crushed beside her and Misato; an injured body immersed in the fluid while being injured further would just feel suffocation.

"Shinji," she uttered, struggling to free at least one of her arms. "I could never give up on finding you, Shinji. In my heart, I knew you were still alive. In my heart, I always knew I'd find you one day."

Finally, freeing her left arm from Lilith's grip, Fusei reached over and grabbed Shinji's head, bringing him over to lay it on her chest.

"M… Mother," he uttered, feeling like his vision was dimming.

A large, purple hand reached into the pool and grabbed the hand of Lilith, tightening the grip she had on the three; Unit-01 had finished fighting with Units-02 and 03 and now its resident soul desired what it had spent the better part of a decade preparing for.

"Gaah!" Fusei gasped as she felt like her bones were being crushed as the head of Unit-01 plunged into the LCL. "Yui…you can't have him. He'll never be yours. Do you really think…that just because you take someone else's child…because you feared you couldn't have any of your own, that makes you a qualified parent? Not even close. You didn't even go through the legal channels. You just… You just took him from my boyfriend and I. No matter what you do, you can never make him yours, and you left him to play ghost in the shell in Two-Thousand-Four! Two-Thousand-Four! He was only three years old! And you left him alone! You and your husband left him alone! What the Hell were you thinking?!"

The Eva bared its teeth at the woman.

"Did you really even put Shinji first?" Fusei questioned, refusing to show fear to Yui just because she was currently inhabiting a giant cyborg. "What, was that your intention from the very beginning, no matter which way you went? You have a child, wait until they were a toddler…and then just walk out of their life like it's a game or something? Parenthood isn't a game, Yui. It's rite of passage that changes you and challenges you to do the right thing. If you fail, you failed your child for life. But it's hard to fail a child if you were unable to start after something else happens that keeps you away from them. And I can't see myself as failing Shinji because of you."

Yui swore that if this…this woman that didn't do anything of any real significance say anything else like, "You failed because you're not a real mother! It doesn't matter if there are no blood ties between you. If you took Shinji…only to leave him, then you're the biggest failure I know.", then she would kill her right there and then. Bite her head off and be rid of her. Nobody calls her a failure and gets away.

"Yui failed…because she kidnapped somebody else's child and caused his father to die from his injuries when he tried to stop her husband and her from taking his son," went Misato, feeling like the bones in her arms were breaking. "Even if she kills us, she'll still be a failure…because Shinji will never be hers."

Air bubbles escaped the Eva's mouth as she tightened her grip on them.

Cough! Shinji coughed…and Fusei couldn't feel his heartbeat near her chest.

"Shinji?" She spoke to him, but his eyes were closed. "Come on, Shinji. Say something, Shinji. Say anything! Shinji?"

Lilith could feel the life fleeing the body of the boy as a result of being squeezed too much by both her and Unit-01…but what bothered her…was his last thought as his heart started slowing down. It wasn't of any fear or despair as a result of being in a desperate situation or because he had been shot at. No, it was actually of peace; the comfort of being in the embrace of his real mother had left him numb to the pain he was in and he couldn't find the strength to stay awake. In the end, he only regretted not getting to meet the rest of his real family…and leaving her.

His soul lingers, thought the essence of Rei, but his body's journey has ended for him.

Unit-01 had released its grip on the loosening grip of Lilith, allowing the two women to try and surface with Shinji's body. But then the Eva grabbed Fusei and dragged her back down.

Lilith felt nothing but rage and hatred in the purple Eva towards this woman that began her path to motherhood at an early age. All that coursed through this amalgamation of flesh and metal…was a drive to end her life.

Die, she heard the soul of Yui speak. Drown in the abyss and die!

But the Eva wasn't going to drown Fusei in the reservoir of LCL used to fulfill NERV's needs; the Eva was going to smash her under its hand until there was nothing left.

As Shinji's body floated in between the three whilst Misato was forced to swim away, Lilith's face started to contort.

I'm sorry, Shinji, Fusei thought as she felt her body being crushed by the Eva. I failed you. I wasn't able to protect you or bring you home. I'm sorry, Genshi-teki. I failed you, as well. I couldn't protect our son. I failed you both. I'm so sorry.

"He's happy for us both," Lilith heard Fusei's memories of her time spent with her boyfriend during her pregnancy with Shinji after Second Impact. "I love you both very much."

"Fusei, sometimes, I wish I understood you better," her sister, Shinko-Kinomi, had once told her after their parents had found out she was pregnant.

"Why better?" Fusei had asked. "You understand me enough the way you do just by talking to me."

"I'm your big sister and I…I didn't safeguard you."

"Nobody but Genshi-teki and I are at fault. I own up to that."

"Are you sure you can handle a baby at such a young age? I mean, girls a bit older than you die during childbirth. I know it's just a statistic, but I don't want you to suffer."

"I'm not going to die…and neither is this baby."

"I'm not one to say this for something you did that was so reckless and after a natural disaster caused tremendous devastation just a few months ago, Fusei," she heard the memory of her father four months after Second Impact, "but I'm proud that you're taking responsibility for this new life you have inside you with Genshi-teki."

"I love Genshi-teki and he loves me."

"I know I'm probably asking you this at a bad time and everything, Fusei," Lilith heard the memory of Fusei being with her boyfriend during her pregnancy's fourth month, "but after our son is born, since we can't right now, will you marry me, Fusei Hitode?"

"I… Yes. Yes, I'll marry you, Genshi-teki."

"I can't believe you haven't exhibited any mood swings so far, Fusei," her mother had told her daughter one day as she was examining herself in a mirror, feeling her swollen abdomen. "I mean, you haven't yelled or complained about anything or anyone."

"I've never felt any reason to yell at anyone over anything there's no control over. And…I can't whine about the way I look right now. I'm not doing anything ridiculous that you see on television."

"It'd be typical if you were to complain about not being able to wear a bikini or something."

"Mother, you know I'm a one-piece girl. Not much to show. Shinko-Kinomi is the bikini girl."

"Fusei! Fusei!" The memory of her sister screaming her name as she and her lover had fallen down and were injured.

"Ow…" The girl had whimpered over her injured leg and fearing for her unborn baby's life and the life of her future husband.

This woman has so much love in her heart and her past, Rei thought, watching the memory of Fusei giving birth to a baby boy, despite having a broken leg that didn't hinder her as much, aided and supported by friends and family.

"Hey, there, Shinji," she heard her as she greeted her newborn son.

Even when she lost people, her father and grandfather, even her lover, she didn't let it break her as much as it hurt her.

And then, as though she was now within the saddest memory of the woman, seeing everything happen as though she were actually there, Rei Ayanami…saw Yui and Gendo Ikari take the baby that was Shinji from his mother while she was slowly waking from her dead sleep…and as his father fell to the floor, unable to stop them because of his injuries.

"My son!" Genshi-teki cried as someone came to help him up. "Someone took my son!"

The only hope she had that kept her going was finding their child and trying to establish some relationship with him, Rei realized as she saw Shinji's father breathe his final breath in his mother's arms. A young woman that accepted her unplanned pregnancy, was willing to face the stigma of an unwed mother until she and her boyfriend could marry, ultimately shed blood just to meet her child, and every once in a while cry in her sleep, just wondering everyday if he was doing alright. What of you, Yui Ikari? What is it do you feel? What is it do you fear?

Lilith grabbed the purple Eva with its regenerated arm and explored the memories of the woman that had committed the heartbreaking crime. This allowed Rei to see how Yui just took Shinji under the impression and false belief that Fusei was dead, faking her motherhood and passing the baby off as hers. But not once did Yui ever truly commit to the boy, even if she did everything a mother was supposed to do; she bottle-fed the boy, made sure he was sleeping well, knew enough about medicine to look after him herself, but none of that established any maternal relation with the child. And then, that horrible day came when the woman made the little boy (who, by that time, had been easily manipulated into thinking that she and her husband were his parents, and wholeheartedly loved them as though they were due to his young age) watch her last day as a person and what would be the rest of her life as a ghost in the shell, scarring him.

She didn't even consider the possibility that someone would come for him, thinking that anyone related to him was dead or had forgotten about his existence, making him an orphan, Rei realized, an expendable orphan that nobody would miss and would do as she needed him to…just because she saw him as a means to achieve an impossible goal for her.

"I love you, Mother," she heard Shinji say to Fusei over the phone one time.

Suddenly, something had slipped out of Shinji's clothes and drifted away from him. It was a small, silver emblem with a red, corded thread tied around it. The emblem itself was some sort of avian creature. It sank down to where Fusei was pinned under Unit-01's hand.

"Shinji," she cried out. "Shinji!"

Looking back and forth between the dead boy and the woman that bore him, Rei, feeling something different inside her for the first time in her life, found herself wishing she could cry to understand the emotion she was feeling.

Is this…regret? She wondered; she wasn't sure how…but Rei now felt sympathy for Fusei…and sorrow for Shinji. What…have I done? What have we done?

It wasn't just regret she was feeling. It was shame. The boy whose mother she had felt threatened by was dead…and she knew whose fault it was.

Shinji…I'm sorry, she realized her role in this cruelty.

Grip! Unit-01 was grabbed by Lilith and forced to back away from Fusei.

We killed him, Yui, Rei believed, and we must pay for keeping him from his mother.

Everything happens as it must, Yui responded.

Then what I'm going to do next must happen.

As Misato climbed out of the LCL, seeing that Units-02 and 03 were beheaded and lifeless, she thought of calling Ritsuko to try and get some form of backup from the JSSDF, except her phone was dead from having been in the LCL.

BURST! Unit-01 had emerged from the LCL, sent flying in the air, and slamming down on the two defeated Evas.

FLASH! The LCL in the artificial lake behind Misato glowed brightly, as though an electrical phenomenon were happening in the depths.

This went on for ten seconds before Lilith emerged from it, still wearing Rei's face, but with a saddened expression instead of an angry or vacant one. She looked down at Misato and pointed to the LCL as a body floated up.

"Take her…and go now," she ordered the purple-haired woman, and then waded out of the lake. "There has been enough sadness and death today."

Misato saw Lilith approach Unit-01 and fell atop it. She then ran over towards the lake and saw that it was Fusei, but she looked different; it was probably due to the LCL soaking them. Jumping in to get her, she pulled her out of the lake and quickly carried her out of there.

"Let her know…that I'm sorry for my misguided actions towards her…and that she deserved Shinji more than anyone else…and still does," she heard Rei say.

-x-

Asuka couldn't believe any of this was actually real. Some of it had to be fabricated. She couldn't believe, didn't want to believe that Shinji was just… It was just so unlikely.

"Is he really?" She asked Misato, hoping that she was just lying.

"We didn't go back for two hours," Misato explained. "The soldiers were arguing over who had the authority to take Commander Ikari. It eventually came to a coin toss…and the JSSDF lost to the police. They called for reinforcements and they entered Terminal Dogma. We had expected to find Lilith and Unit-01, but all we found was a rotting behemoth and a naked woman buried under its husk. I asked the soldiers to check the lake for Shinji…but all they found…were his clothes…and this."

Asuka looked at the phoenix charm that Fusei had lent to Shinji that was given to her by his father as Misato held it up in front of them.

"But…if all they found were his clothes, then…there must be a chance that he's…"

"I saw him, Asuka, and he was not looking too good after he was shot and resuscitated, and then he was in the LCL again…and being crushed by Unit-01 alongside his mother and I. Fusei begged for him to say anything to assure us that he was still with us…but he didn't do anything. He just… I think the pressure applied to him by the Eva was just too much for him to take."

Asuka then looked at the young woman inside the room they were outside of. Something else had to have happen, but she didn't know what.

"But what happened to Fusei," she wanted to know, "and who is this girl that you're waiting on to wake up?"

Within the room, looking as though they were sleeping rather than unconscious was a young girl, probably early-teens, shoulder-length dark hair, and a saddened look to her emotionless face right now.

"I didn't realize it until after I reached an elevator," Misato explained, "but when I put her down, I thought I was seeing things. But…Ritsuko did a DNA test on her. That's Fusei Hitode."

"But…that's not possible," Asuka stated. "She was thirty years old. This girl has to be at least thirteen or fourteen."

"We'll know for sure…when she wakes up."

Turning in her sleep again, the young girl, believed to be Fusei Hitode, groaned as though she were locked in a bad dream she was trying to escape from.

"I'm sorry," she uttered. "I'm sorry, Shinji."

To be continued…

A/N: I'm hoping that the next chapter will be the last one. Be on the lookout for it.