Creation began on 03-23-21
Creation ended on 09-23-22
Neon Genesis Evangelion
The Living Alchemist: Through the Gate
It was about a week after the return of Hohenheim that the Elric Brothers and Shinji were called back to Central by Mustang for their next assignment, and all Hohenheim had to know was that if he up and left again before they returned, he would be at the mercy of the Living Alchemist the second he did.
"Investigate a series of thefts in the city of Aquroya," said Edward as he and Alphonse and Shinji were on the train heading towards their destination. "A city by the water."
"A coastal town," Shinji stated. "Often a place of beauty and culture."
"The thief is known by the media as Psiren," Alphonse informed. "There have been over eighteen thefts, but the reports are rather lacking; there's no information on the thief's abilities or general appearance."
"Either the reporters kept out pictures of this Psiren…or we're not getting the whole story," Shinji told them.
"Why would the reporters leave something out?" Ed wanted to know.
"Why do people omit anything from the public? The reason varies from one person to the next person. It could be for any reason. Ratings, notoriety, tourism, admiration, fear, a lack of concrete evidence, anything."
Of course, it could have been each of these reasons…or none of them. The fact that they had no idea of what the reason was…was why they were unprepared for whatever was waiting for them in this coastal city. For all they knew, this Psiren thief could've been a group of thieves and not a single person as the newspaper stated.
"Why couldn't they send someone else to investigate?" Ed wondered.
"What, you don't like traveling?" Shinji asked.
"Not funny."
"Who's laughing?"
-x-
"…I don't understand why you couldn't send Major Ikari to Aquroya on his own," Hawkeye spoke to Mustang in his office.
"Those three tend to work better together than alone," Mustang explained, "at least when expected to, that is."
But Hawkeye understood that her superior still suspected that the Living Alchemist was hiding something from everyone around him. Despite there being nothing to indicate that the teenage boy was lying about anything that he disclosed when he applied to become a State Alchemist, her superior couldn't get past this until something gave and the Living Alchemist was no longer suspected of anything that made him a person of interest. It just didn't sit well for the Flame Alchemist that there was someone among them that was so different from everyone else in Amestris…and likely hiding something from them.
-x-
So far, the clone's sense of recollection was limited, but as the days came and went, Ritsuko found that this new Shinji's hold on his past…was just as depressing as the original. He had almost zero memory of his mother, all save a brief moment of a woman he thought was her, but only ever saw her from the neck down, wearing some sort of suit with small wings on the back; he had no memory of her head or face. The clone could recall other people based on the most minute descriptions, but their names were still absent.
"Red hair, blue eyes, always angry," she heard him refer to the Second Child. "Blue hair, red eyes, always distant. Old man, never spoken towards. Two boys, always looking at a woman with purple hair."
He recognizes the people from his past, but he can't identify them, she thought as she drew blood from his right arm.
"…Why did they leave me?" He suddenly uttered.
"What?" She asked him.
"They left me…that man…and the woman in the winged suit. Why did they leave me?"
"You think your…your parents…left you?"
"They left me…and they never came back. They never came back."
-x-
Shinji was a young man of much potential, but his sense of restraint was beginning to wane because of this…detective that approached him and the Elrics…and apprehended them.
"…How are we for sure that you three are who you claim to be?" The detective asked them for the third time.
In front of the three young men, three bowls of noodles; two of which had been consumed by the Elrics, but the one in front of Shinji had been ignored by the Living Alchemist.
"And I will tell you again for the umpteenth time," Shinji replied, his tone raised by such a degree that Ed and Al felt they needed to back away, "contact our superior, Brigadier General Roy Mustang. Or are you so desperate to close your investigation into this Psiren person that you go and falsely accuse anyone that practices alchemy…or are you just pathetic?"
The detective got up and left the room.
"Something tells me that's going to come back to haunt you, Shinji," went Al.
"Either way, this guy is either unable to find authenticated leads…or he just has no idea who this thief is."
"First time we've ever seen you nearly lose your cool," Ed told him.
"Trust me, if I had to go off on the guy, I wouldn't have gone too far…much. Maybe just enough to make him soil himself."
The brothers felt that the detective was probably the lucky one right now; because he left out the room, probably to verify their identities, he saved himself from getting on Shinji's…uneasy side.
-x-
Even though they were just sitting three feet away from it, the Gate was creepy when the figures decorating its structure moved around every now and then, like it was really was something out of Hell. And NERV was building something that could travel through it, taking people to this world Shinji was in, going against his insistence that they stay away due to the dangers of what could happen once inside the Gate. But Asuka and Rei, simply because they wanted to see him again, and in person, were willing to incur his wrathful woe if it meant seeing him once more after the belief that he was dead after what happened with the Twelfth Angel.
"Just how upset do you suppose he'll be after he sees us?" Asuka asked Rei.
"Unknown," she responded; she didn't know him enough to demonstrate anger towards others just for trying to see him.
In terms of personal history and opinions, neither girl could say for sure how upset Shinji would be if they ever saw him in person after such a long time.
-x-
The detective had to confess to the trio before they left the police station that, out of the three of them, it was Major Ikari that spooked him the most due to his attitude earlier that day. Even if none of them were potential suspects, the mere fact that Shinji had to speak in a tone that hinted at potential violence caused by false accusations was enough to make the guy want to step back and watch him from a safe distance.
"…Well, at least he gave us a copy of their file on Psiren," Al stated as he, Ed and Shinji were sitting in their hotel room going over the file. "There's barely anything about their identity."
"A thief that uses alchemy," said Ed as he scrolled down a paper. "How many people use alchemy to commit crimes?"
"Desperate people?" Shinji suggested. "Men and women that have tried other professions and either failed at them or wanted to try other things? The question has to be why, though. You find the 'why', you'll find the 'who', the 'how' and everything else in between. Why does someone who practices alchemy use it to commit acts of theft? Why do the police have insufficient information on the thief? Why…why…"
He got up off the sofa he was sitting on and grabbed his blue shawl before heading out the door.
"Uh, Shinji?" Al questioned.
"I'm just going to have a chat with the desk clerk," he told the brothers.
They both got the impression that Shinji suspected something they didn't know yet.
Shinji walked down the stairs to the first floor and went over to the front desk where he rung the bell to get the man's attention.
"Yes?" He asked Shinji.
"Yes, I have some questions about this city and the Psiren," Shinji explained to him. "Could you answer some specific ones for me, please?"
"I can try."
"Works for me. When exactly did the Psiren show up?"
"About two years ago."
"Two years? Did anything happen around Aquroya before then? An accident? A disappearance? A death? Anything?"
"Just the death of the tourism because of the sinking."
"Sinking?"
"Yes, Aquroya's sinking. It started a decade ago. Several of the buildings by the water sank in due to the land being unstable. When that started happening, the tourism was affected; there's no point in visiting if the city's going to be gone in a few years. Some people started leaving afterwards, with only those of us that can't afford to move or didn't want to move. But because we're a tourist attraction, we need tourism for our livelihood. It's our primary source of income. Then suddenly, the Psiren appeared, making thefts that made the news, and people started coming here in droves to see the thefts as they were going to happen."
"Publicly-known thefts? Psiren made no attempt to hide anything?"
"No. The fact that people knew about them was what made them want to see the thefts happen. It hinders the police and all, but it's put us on the map again as an attraction, even if it's only for a short while. Those of us left around here know our home is going to be gone in a few years, but before that happens…"
"One last hurrah? One last bang before reality sets in? That sort of thing?"
"Yeah. I can get that you're a State Alchemist, and that it's your job to investigate things like this, but it's not as simple as you think."
"Nothing was simple for me long before I even became a State Alchemist. So, Aquroya is sinking into the water. Unstable ground, likely due to the foundations being weakened by the cracks and the water seeping into them. Tell me, why not just hire some people to strengthen the remaining foundations or modify the city to function as a floating variant of sorts?"
"We wouldn't know what to do. Not even the most skilled alchemists could do anything to restore the buildings."
"We could still try, sir," they both looked over at the stairs and saw the Elrics.
"And just how much of that did you two hear?" Shinji asked them.
"Just enough to know that the city's sinking," Ed revealed, "and that the thief is doing these thefts to boost the tourism before it's gone forever."
"And those that couldn't or wouldn't leave depend upon the tourism," added Al. "Shinji, don't you do the impossible much of the time? You see potential solutions that others don't often see."
"Sometimes. But just because I can see a potential solution, it doesn't mean that it is a solution if the people hate it or it impacts them in an unlikely way."
"Wait a minute," went Ed, "you said something about a floating variant of Aquroya, right? What does that mean, exactly?"
"An artificial island or an artificial extension of a preexisting landmass. You make it so that structures that still stand or can still be inhabited are less likely to sink into the water because their foundations are no longer affected. There's metal that's been in the water for decades and is still sturdy, despite the rusting and negligence; if it was meant to be in the water for long periods of time, then it was meant to be in the water for long periods of time."
"How do you know so much about these things? You must be at least fifteen or sixteen years old." The desk clerk asked Shinji.
"Fourteen," he stated; sometimes, he wished his birthday was just around the corner. "For at least a few more months. These two (he points to the Elrics) are the primary reason I know what I know about alchemy. I probably wouldn't be the alchemist I am today were it not for them."
"Yeah, I think I heard of you. You're the one they call the Living Alchemist, aren't you? You're supposed to be some type of healer. Is what they say true about you? That…you grow arms and legs back for people, that you saved some people injured in Lior?"
"I don't boast what I've done…but I did help some people in Lior. Isn't part of the benefit of alchemy supposed to be helping people with what you know is within your ability to achieve?"
-x-
Winry didn't really want to think about it, but when she noticed how Hohenheim looked around the cemetery to bring flowers to the Elrics' mother, Trisha, she suspected that the brothers' father…was, quite hilariously, really, afraid of Shinji. And when she thought hilariously, it was due to the fact that, unlike Edward's animosity towards his father, Shinji was the last person she ever suspected to be able to install fear within another person. What was more, that she found it hard to fathom that anyone could be terrified of Shinji, who seemed like the last person to be afraid of, whether it was because he was an alchemist or just some person that came and went in Resembool every now and then.
"Tell me something," she spoke to him as he turned to face her. "The last time you spoke with Shinji… He put the fear of worse than Edward in you, didn't he?"
"Now, what would make you think that?" He responded with a slight chuckle.
"Because you seem more afraid of him than the likelihood of Edward wanting to hit you. I can understand that he made Shinji promise to hit you, something he accomplished without little hesitation because he did apologize and state that it wasn't personal, which was true; it wasn't personal to him, just Edward. But later, it seemed as though Shinji had something towards you that…was personal."
"Oh, he just warned me against leaving unexpectedly. All three of them serve in the military and can abuse their authority if they chose to."
Winry thought about it, and knew he was right about that. Although, she disbelieved that Shinji, simply because of his desire to refrain from violence and drive to use alchemy for healing purposes only, would use the military might to go after Hohenheim simply for leaving town again. But then again, Shinji was a mystery because he came from a place that was different from their own…and from his personal experience, it was a place that had been ravaged by violence that didn't seem to end…and always seemed to expand into personal territories. And Shinji had mentioned how his own relationship with his father, prior to ever showing up on the night Ed and Al tried to bring their mother back to life, was practically…significantly less than the relationship the brothers had with Hohenheim.
"He'll probably chase you down himself," she suggested. "He doesn't strike me as the type to have the military chase down people when he can and will do so himself."
"Yeah, he…doesn't seem like he's lazy when it comes to doing things he knows he's capable of if he puts in the effort," Hohenheim stated.
"He once asked what worth is the value of any one person when they do nothing to contribute to where they are in a meaningful way. I don't know what he really meant by that, though."
Hohenheim stood up to his full height, which, for some odd reason, seemed to pale in comparison to that of Shinji, who wasn't even all grown up…but had grown in experience, and walked away from Trisha's grave.
"That is a good question to know," he told Winry. "I wonder what his worth is after everything he's done since he arrived here?"
You have no idea, she thought.
-x-
Ritsuko pondered at exactly how long the clone of Shinji would continue to demonstrate this behavior due to lack of recollection and identity. Even as he floated in a tank similar to the one Rei Ayanami floated in from time to time, the faux-blond woman had to consider the likelihood that cloning someone exactly as they had been intended to be was currently impossible, not only because of the imperfection of cloning, but because the human brain, its thoughts, memories and overall emotional states…were too complicated to copy. And Shinji Ikari was someone that, despite being someone that wasn't supposed to be a complex individual, was a challenging one because of how much SEELE desired to return to their ruined scenario as soon as possible.
"He was a fourteen-year-old abandoned by his father," she recalled one of its members telling her before the move to clone the boy was put into motion. "He had no dreams or ambitions. He was no different from cannon fodder."
Except that you're putting much pressure on making sure he's brought back to pilot in order to return to a scenario that may be lost, she thought as looked down at her tablet to monitor his brainwaves. His lack of recollection seems to tie into his loss of identity.
Suddenly, the alarms went off, and the lights blared red as the boy in the tube became erratic.
Ritsuko looked at her tablet again and found that the clone was having a seizure. She ceased the attempt to revise his mental recollection and drained the tube to treat him. The clone boy shook on the wet, grated floor as she brought a medical bag over and prepared a sedative. She injected him in his left shoulder and he stopped shaking and passed out.
"What the Hell happened?" She wondered; Shinji hadn't been in any state of improper health.
"…Don't…don't…" She heard the clone speak.
"What?"
"Don't…"
Grip! She was suddenly grabbed on her neck by him…and he was looking at her…like this rage had consumed him.
"Don't hate me," he uttered, tightening his grip on her. "Don't hurt me. Don't cast me aside. Don't leave me alone again. Don't kill me. Don't, don't, don't."
The way he said it all implied to Ritsuko that, despite his lack of recollection, the clone was recalling other things that Shinji never spoke of.
"I…I can't go through that again, being reduced to nothing…and continuously devoured…by that monster. I will not go back into that monster. My life is already stained by many regrets."
The sedative had stopped his seizure, but he was experiencing an adrenaline rush…and was probably causing side-effects to his nervous system.
"Shinji…stop…" She pleaded.
"Stop…the nightmare," he responded, and then threw her aside to run away.
Cough-cough! Ritsuko gagged as she felt her lungs refill with oxygen.
-x-
The canal of Aquroya seemed almost romantic at night, except Shinji and the Elric brothers weren't looking for a trio of dates. They were looking for the center of the city's water ways where they would attempt a transmutation to affect its future.
"Shinji, are you sure about this?" Al asked as the three were on a small boat.
"No risk," he responded, "no reward. Also, you're the Building Alchemist; you'd basically be doing something here that ties into your form of alchemy."
"I never saw myself building bridges in water ways, though."
"You get bragging rights about this."
"Hey, who's that?" Ed questioned, pointing towards another boat, which was occupied by someone dressed in black.
It was a woman, somewhat curvaceous, wearing a mask and with exposed shoulders.
"Well, well," she went. "Here I am enjoying a quiet evening on the water, and what do I find? Three young men with ties to the Amestrian Military."
"Uh, actually, miss," went Al, "my brother and I are technically still boys. This guy would be considered a man because he's over thirteen (points to Shinji)."
"I don't think she needs clarification, Al," Ed told him.
"May I presume that…you're this Psiren that everyone is either impressed by or upset with?" Shinji asked her, using his oar to point at her.
"Now, what would make you assume so?"
"Well, being that you're dressed unusually, wearing a mask, and clearly the type that does what she does for the sake of some publicity for a sinking city that could be saved in a different manner, how else am I supposed to address you? You don't look like a teacher to some young minds, a holy follower to an order, not even a performance artist. If I had to accuse falsely, I'd say that you look like a temptress. A very amateur seductress."
"Now, now, that's not a very proper way to address a woman."
"That's what some people tend to tell me. But I have my personal beliefs and opinions, too. I'm beginning to wonder why less than half of the women I do see every once in a while are what I can consider to be of the innocent and virtuous variety."
Swish! Something extended from the woman's right hand, looking like a blade of sorts.
"Didn't your mother ever teach you that it's quite rude to express such things?" She asked Shinji.
"My mother's been out of my life since before I was barely four," he replied, clapping his hands together and placed them into the water, causing a flash of light under their boat. "It's hard to be taught anything new from a person that isn't around to teach you."
Clash! The water around the boats in the canal froze over until it resembled a frozen lake.
"Whoa!" Ed gasped; normally, a basic transmutation of this level seemed impossible, but Shinji pulled it off…and without one of his Red Stones. "Shinji, just how far did you freeze the water?"
Shinji got off the boat and stood up on the frozen water.
"Just as far as our boats are concerned," he said to Ed. "It's all about the potential of the human body and how far we can go past our current limits and explore new limits to surpass."
The woman got off her boat and ran towards Shinji with her weapon.
Shinji removed his shawl and wrapped it around her weapon-holding arm and got behind her, kicking her right leg to the frozen surface.
"I suggest you calm down and listen to what I have to say that may end up saving the city, ma'am," he told the woman, seeing that her weapon was a sword made of playing cards. "You use alchemy like we do?"
"I dabble."
"That's practicing alchemy, but I guess you never tried anything on a large scale."
-x-
They were able to pull the Gate open, but they were likely to be flying blind if they sent the transport vessel through and not know where or even what state they were likely to end up if Shinji wasn't doing anything. Still, it was anyone's guess on what to expect if this method actually worked. If they could meet with Shinji, to confirm that he was there in person, even to hold him again, it would've been worth the potential risks.
"We'll be ready in fifteen minutes," a technician informed Asuka and Rei, handing them their environmental suits.
"Thank you," Rei replied and left to go change.
Asuka looked at her environmental suit, noting that it was different from the plugsuit in the fact that it was just regular clothing designed to keep the wearers safe from whatever environment they were likely to be in. She wasn't sure what was to be expected in a world different from this one that Shinji ended up being in that was connected to the Gate. From what they could understand so far, it was likely the world Shinji was in was a perfect match to their own in terms of environmental factors. If the only thing dangerous was simply getting there…they had to try and make it so that it wasn't such a risk.
-x-
The clone didn't get far, having fallen and lost consciousness before he could reach a stairway. While this spared Ritsuko from having to notify security and creating another clone, it left her concerned with the viability of this one. His questionable recollection, the gaps in between his understanding of things and his identity, they were all factors in how the very act of cloning people was an imperfect science. Artificial life wasn't life in any sense if the subject lacked what made them live.
"So, what's wrong with him?" One of her assistants questioned as the clone was tied to the gurney, having checked his medical status. "Aside from the seizure and adrenaline rush, there's nothing physically wrong."
"It's not the body that's compromised," Ritsuko explained as she sat down away from the clone. "It's the mind. We're trying to perfectly replace the Third Child, but the fabrication of artificial memories may not be working."
"How is that hard to do?" He asked her. "It's not like he has a life beyond what you people did to him when he showed up to pilot the Eva. You practically bred him to be cannon fodder, all of them, in fact. It's not like any of you at NERV intended to let him pursue a career in music or become a basketball star."
"Maybe that's why the clone is unstable," a female assistant suggested as she took a syringe and administered another sedative to the clone. "You're trying to create a copy that is dedicated to piloting the Eva that it's creating a friction between who the original was before he died and who you're trying to make him out as. Who are any of us outside of what we do here? Who are we when we're not on the clock? Are we…still what we do…or are we what we do that isn't defined by how others see us?"
But Ritsuko, as much as she knew that Shinji had a life outside of NERV, that he probably wanted to go back to that life, however poor it was in quality after the matter with the Angels was done with, couldn't fathom the truth being discovered that a clone of Shinji just shows up and resumes where the original left off, cut off from the world he couldn't be a part of again. If that ever happened, there would be repercussions…and SEELE couldn't risk anything to jeopardize what they hope would restore their scenario. She needed to find a way to remedy this matter with the memories and identity.
"…What the Hell are you reading?" She heard her male assistant ask the female.
"It's an old article about some dig in China that discovered some strange relic that was taken to Japan for research purposes," she answered him. "That disbanded group was asked to examine it and learn what they could."
Ritsuko became curious and wondered what was found in China that was taken to Japan.
-x-
Alchemists Be Thou For The People. Even as a State Alchemist, Shinji couldn't let go of that credo that only got inside his mind because of the Elrics; he was a servant to the military, but he was still a civil servant to the general public. And he really loved how there were loopholes in what he did. Technically, he was obeying the military to pursue the case of a thief spotted in Aquroya, but he was going about it in a different way that would ensure that there was a future for the city, and if they could pull this off, he was certain there would be other ways for tourism to sustain Aquroya.
"How are you even certain that this is going to work, Living Alchemist?" Psiren asked Shinji as they stood outside the city limits.
"I just have faith," he responded, holding five Red Stones that were larger than the ones he had previously used in the past; these were the size of baseballs.
"Are you sure those aren't Philosopher Stones?"
"We've seen how he makes them," Ed told her, "and while these stones have limits, they're very effective when he's the one that uses them. But something like this, though, may take the four of us if these people that live here hope to have a place that still stands above the water."
Shinji then threw the Red Stones out onto the city streets; even if they shattered from the impact, they would still be enough to pull this off.
"Are y'all ready?" He asked the Elrics and Psiren.
"No," they all responded, and then sighed as they got on their knees beside him.
"Are you ready?" Al asked him.
"Let's do this," he replied, clapping his hands together.
They put their palms on the ground and activated the transmutation circle that they had etched across the entire city.
Shine! The circle lit up, the circulating energy backed up by the Red Stones.
Shinji felt as though he could see every inch of Aquroya, down to the ruins of buildings half-submerged in the water, and what he wanted to see happen to them. Large chains made of metal, pillars and extended canals, hollow pockets and walkways leading and from different parts of the city, the people that had been asked to vacate Aquroya watched from behind the four alchemists as their home was being altered in an attempt to save it. There was sounds of rumbling, breaking and water flowing here and there. Some buildings were moved, but nothing was sinking or breaking apart. It was a display of light that obscured mostly everything, as if to hide a surprise in the works.
Suddenly, Shinji found himself in front of the Gate again, but the vast expanse of white had been replace by a vast cosmos and ground comprised of dirt.
"What?" He wondered, looking around, unable to find Ed, Al or Psiren. "What's going on here?
The Gate opened…and he was shown the interior, which had also been replaced by a cosmos instead of darkness and a multitude of eyes belonging to the entities within it. Something red and shiny appeared to be coming at him. As it came closer into view, Shinji could see that it looked like a Red Stone, only shaped like a heart with a silver ring around it. It floated into his left hand as he saw something else coming through. It was shaped like a ship, small, sleek and had that infamous logo on it.
NERV? He wondered, concerned. Are they trying to come through the Gate? After I told them not to?
He had every right to be worried about anyone from his world coming through the Gate to the world he was in. Equivalent Exchange only worked with the Gate when the proper toll was paid by the alchemist…and Shinji only managed to avoid physical repercussions due to his belief in the human body's potential and added use of the refined Red Stones. If people, even ones from his world, were to just start trying to travel through the Gate like it was an attempt to go to the moon, there was a chance that the beings that dwelled within the Gate would try to harm them like they did every other person that attempted to play God by tampering with life.
As the ship came closer, he decided to use the stone in his hand in the hopes that he could mitigate whatever consequences whoever was inside it might face.
I can't let them suffer, he thought as he clapped his hands together, not for my sake.
The stone glowed brightly and enveloped him.
To be continued…
A/N: Shinji makes moves that stretch the boundaries of loopholes and regulations to affect the people in beneficial ways, but he still has fears of what could happen to people that are indirectly affected by his attempts. Anyone that has seen the first film would know what befalls most that try to travel through the Gate, no matter how prepared they are. And as for the clone of Shinji, I may have a new poll for him that affects his role in the story. Patience until the next chapter, and don't believe everything rumored without more evidence to the matter that verifies all.