AN: This chapter is a combination of two previous choices since a tie occurred (sorta). It's sort of my fault for not closing the voting on time like I was supposed to. I think I managed to save the spirit of both choices in the chapter bellow. So everyone's a winner!

On an unrelated note, you people have no sense of adventure. You always seem to choose the safe options, which takes half the fun out of reading (though not necessarily writing, since I make it my personal mission to make the story somewhat screwed up no matter what you choose). But I just thought you should all know that you're sorta lame (except a few of you). Just sayin'. With that said: Enjoy!... ya wet blankets...

Chapter: 7A & 7B – Shinji calms the fuck down and calls Naomi for help

ChoicePath: Start – 1A – 5B – 7A/7B

Author: Fresh C

Shinji's thoughts ran wild as he weighed his options rapidly. If he returned to the scene of the crime he was likely to be seen or caught. But if he didn't return, the evidence he'd left behind would incriminate him regardless. There was no real choice here. He had to go back for his book. It was the only option.

Shinji sprinted through the alleyway in the direction that he'd come from. The opening to the main street seemed miles away in his desperation, but he tried not to think about it. He only had one goal: get the book and run.

When he made it back to Toji's bleeding body he was horrified to find two men and a woman standing an arm's length away. The woman had her hand glued to her mouth, staring at the tragedy that wouldn't go away. One of the men was speaking urgently into his cell phone. Shinji did not slow his pace as he neared them. He kept his head pointed downward and avoided eye contact with all of them. As soon as his fingers grasped tightly around the book, he turned around to run back down the alley way. The woman gasped loudly at his actions and one of the men yelled after him to stop, but Shinji didn't registered any of this. He continued to run as fast as he could, thinking only of his escape. For a moment he thought that one of the men might be chasing him, but he didn't turn around to give credence to his fears. He just continued his desperate flight. Running as fast as he could, as long as he could.

No one on the streets tried to stop him. No one yelled after him either. But this was not cause for Shinji to relax. His heart hammered in his chest and his legs began to burn from chafing, but Shinji kept running until he could move no more.

When he finally collapsed to the ground, his breathing was wild and out of control. For a moment he thought he was going to die from lack of air. Breathe, he told himself, just Breathe. Slowly he brought his breathing under control and was able to survey his surroundings.

He'd fallen in the grassy fields surrounding the town. He wasn't very far from the city at all, as Tokyo-3 was not surrounded by suburban areas like most cities. Instead, the outskirts of the city were largely uninhabited. As Shinji surveyed the city from the outside the strangeness of this was not lost on him. It was as if the city had sprung up in the middle of nowhere, defying the natural world around it. It existed despite its environment, not because of it. And in that moment, Shinji realized that more than anything in the world, he wanted to go back there if he could.

He laid there in the grass thinking of all that transpired. It was very likely that Toji was dead. He had fought to maintain his place in the world, but his efforts had made him a murderer. The blood on his hands and his clothes were the proof. He was stained with his sin and anyone who saw him would know it.

He remembered from the train ride into the city, that there was a river flowing nearby. In his mind he was sure that the blood would not come off easily, but he was determined to try and wash himself at the very least. Shinji stood on shaky legs and made the half-mile trek to his destination.

He lay on his stomach at the river bank and dipped his arms in up to his elbows. At first his initial fears of the blood stains being permanent seemed true, but as he scrubbed furiously at his hands and arms, progress was made. The redness began to bleed away, replaced by the pink hue of raw skin.

His clothes were a separate matter. Try as he might, he could not get the blood stains to completely disappear from his shirt and pants. At most, he'd managed to lighten the stains, but he'd seen enough forensics themed TV shows to know that that wouldn't fool anyone. He couldn't walk back through town with obvious evidence in plain sight. The risk of identification was too high. His best chance of making it back unnoticed would be to wait until night, but even then someone at NERV could just as easily spot the stains. As Shinji sat there thinking about the long walk home, he realized he didn't have many other options.

Then a terrible thought occurred to him. Even if no one noticed anything out of the ordinary and he got away scott free, people would realize that he hadn't gone to school that day. The timing was too convenient. Everyone already knew that he didn't get along with Toji and he had no alibi. As things stood, he was probably the main suspect.

The panic he had been suppressing rose up within him rapidly as he sprung to his feet. He had to run or they'd take him to jail. But he had nowhere left to go back to. He couldn't escape the city, since all public transit required the use of an ID. And even if he'd made it back to his uncle's house, there was nothing to stop the man from turning Shinji in himself.

There was no helping it. Sooner or later Shinji would be caught and then he'd have to face the consequences of his actions. He would lose everything… unless he had an alibi.

When seeking to hide or withhold information from an enemy, denial is rarely an effective tactic. This is especially true if your enemy already has a predisposition to disbelieve you. But even under the best of circumstances (where the person you wish to deceive has complete confidence in you) the truth has a way of seeking light. This is the very nature of truth: It is merely what exists in the face of denial.

The truth cannot be hidden or covered forever, but given enough time, even the most important truths become irrelevant. When you lie, you are merely biding your time. Your words are only meant to distract from that which is irrefutable.

Ideally your distraction should be composed of only truths in order to occupy your enemies time with irrefutable facts, that are nonetheless irrelevant. But if no such real distraction is available, a lie is much more appropriate than silence. Pick your topics carefully. Only lie about that which you have some knowledge about and, if possible, a measure of control over. If you are lucky, your lies will be believed for as long as necessary. Even if no one believes you, a carefully crafted lie can distract from the real issue at hand long enough for you to resolve it.

-The Art of Engagement by Naomi Yamanaka

The story was simple. It had to be. Shinji didn't think he could juggle a lot of details under pressure and lying was one the most stressful things he'd ever done. It was hard to talk to Naomi, whose very name meant truth, and not expect her to see through everything he said. But he tried not to hesitate as he spoke.

He was wandering the city aimlessly since he was too afraid to go back to school. Suddenly he looked behind him and saw that a group of boys were following him. At first he tried to ignore them, but they wouldn't leave him alone.

"Where did you first see them?" Naomi had asked.

Shinji wasted several seconds scrambling for an answer to the unexpected question.

"O-outside the arcade."

He was worried that he'd taken too long to supply an answer and that she wouldn't believe anything else he said, but she let him continue on with the story.

From there the boys followed him from the arcade calling out names at him. ("Loser" "Coward" "Worthless" "Freak", he supplied when Naomi asked). They asked him mockingly why such a little boy wasn't in school and warned him that his mommy would be mad. Naturally this upset Shinji, since his mother was dead (it was relatively easy to draw on the natural anger that the notion brought up). So he yelled at the boys to leave him alone. When they started laughing at him, he walked faster in an attempt to get away. But the older kids did not stop their advance. They picked up the pace just as he did. Finally losing his nerve, Shinji began to run.

He ran as fast as he could, but the boys were still close behind him. He paid no mind to where he was running in his panic. Eventually he reached the river, and suddenly found that there was nowhere else to go. The boys surrounded him and began to hit him. One even threw a rock at his face. (Shinji made sure to cut himself with a rock he found on the ground to add credibility to this)

"Did you see their faces?"

No. He was too busy trying to defend himself. They all seemed to have black hair and he could tell they were older than him, but nothing other than that stuck out in his mind.

"What about their clothes? What were they wearing?"

Shinji couldn't remember.

"Not even a color?"

They were all wearing blue jeans… one of them might have been wearing a red shirt. He told her he couldn't be sure. But while they were on the subject of clothes, he did ask Naomi to bring him a fresh pair of pants and a shirt. Since after the kids where done beating him up, they stole his clothes and threw them into the river.

Naomi had nothing more to say to this, but she was hesitant to hang up the phone. She asked him where she could pick him up, and he told her as best he could.

"Sit tight and don't go anywhere," she said before hanging up. There was no real compassion in her voice, but no condemnation either. Her composure was comforting, in a way.

Shinji put his phone into his backpack alongside his soiled clothing. There was nothing to do but sit and wait.

Naomi arrived in a big black van with tinted windows. It was impossible to see inside of the van, save for through the windshield and that had a slight tint to it as well. The tires seemed large for the frame of the vehicle, but they proved their worth as the van drove easily through the wet and muddied grass as if it were pavement. As he watched its approach, Shinji could only wonder how many agents were packed inside. He wondered why such a large vehicle was necessary for a simple pick-up. Were they really planning to jump out and handcuff him as soon as they were close enough?

Shinji was relieved when Naomi exited the vehicle alone, but he did note that she was not the one driving. She held a bag with his clothes in one hand. He didn't rise to meet her, opting instead to sit with his arms wrapped around his naked knees. Naomi refused to shy away from his near nakedness. She briefly looked him up and down, scanning for injuries. He felt highly exposed as her eyes roamed his body and was relieved when her gaze rested squarely on his face.

"Get dressed," she said, handing him the bag of clothing. "We can bandage you up in the car."

Naomi turned around respectfully as Shinji did as he was told. It was nice to be wearing something other than his underwear. He hadn't given much thought to the cold in his anxiousness, but now that Naomi was actually here, his senses returned to him. It was strange. The only reason he'd gone after Toji was because he knew he couldn't depend on her to keep him safe. But with her present, it was almost as if a weight had been lifted. As she lead him to the back seat of the van and took out the first aid kit, he felt a sudden wave of gratitude. Yes, it was her fault that he'd started to fight, and maybe he'd never really forgive her for that. But as the sting of rubbing alcohol hit his face, he realized that even if it hurt, she'd always be there to clean up the mess.

His begrudging gratitude quickly disappeared when Naomi plashed a small bandage over his cheek and gently whispered into his ear.

"I know you're lying."

Sirens blared in the distance.

Upon hearing the sirens, Naomi quickly ushered Shinji into the back of the van and took a seat next to him. A claustrophobic feeling overtook Shinji as the doors automatically locked on each side. He looked up into Naomi's face, hesitantly, but she wasn't paying him any attention. Her attention was starkly divided between demanding answers from her cell phone and dictating directions to the driver.

"What's its position?" she asked with a quiet intensity. Then without missing a beat she said, "Take a left up on 35th street and stick to the back roads."

"Yes sir," said the driver. These were the only words he spoke during the car ride.

Naomi placed her phone in her lap, but did not end the call. She turned to Shinji and said, "An angel has been sighted. We're taking you directly to the geofront. I trust that you're prepared."

Shinji did not meet her eyes, but nodded his head.

"Good," said Naomi.

The rest of the ride was short and uneventful. The van sped along the roads at speeds that could not be legal as Shinji stared tensely out the window. He was both fearing and expecting to find glimpses of some monstrosity through the gaps in the skyscrapers, but nothing of the sort appeared. The route that the driver had taken managed to avoid any sign of the monster that was attacking the city. Instead, Shinji was only met with the sight of panicked people scrambling to the nearest shelter. Many of them were fleeing from their vehicles and homes in a frenzy. Dropping anything and everything in a mad scramble for safety. Shinji did not want to fight, but he was more afraid of joining them.

In some ways it was too much for Shinji to handle. After everything that had already happened today he was expected to fight a monster. As much as that legitimately scared him, it was in some way a relief. He was one step away from being a convicted murderer. His life was going to change forever and that frightened him more than any monster did. At least this fight was something he had control over. After that there was nothing he could do.

He took a strange comfort in the cockpit of the Evangelion, in a way he never had before. Adjusting to the LCL and initiating the synchronization process was almost therapeutic. Even though he could not stop shaking the entire time, he was not surprised to find that his synchronization score was higher than usual. This was something he knew he could do because he'd already done it before: A fight for survival.

Shinji grit his teeth as they launched Unit 01 to the surface. His stomach lurched as he felt a moment of weightlessness. He reached the surface and immediately scanned the horizon for his target.

"How are you feeling Shinji?" asked Misato over the intercom.

"Fine."

"Good," said Misato. "The angel is due south of your current location. Head there and maintain a distance of ten kilometers. Engage on my mark."

Shinji was moving before she finished speaking. He ran toward the target, riding a wave of adrenaline that he was much too afraid to fall from. He barely registered the large purple monster and its strange energy tentacle whips; his mind couldn't afford to. When he reached the target radius Misato hailed him over the com-link.

"I'm sending up a rifle." A building sprung up from the ground and a side panel folded out to reveal the weapon. "Fire at will, but do not engage the enemy in close combat."

This was what Shinji needed: a target, a goal. He withdrew the rifle from the hidden weapon stash and lined up a shot on the immobile angel. He fired with reckless abandon filling the air with light and smoke.

"Stop firing!" yelled Misato. "You'll kill your visibility!"

Shinji only had a second to recognize his mistake. The cloud of smoke surrounding him completely blocked out his view of the target. He heard an audible crack as a glowing whip sliced diagonally through his rifle.

"Retreat," said Misato. She didn't have to tell him twice.

He dropped the useless gun to the ground and quickly back-stepped. A small gasp escaped his lips as a whip struck the ground just where he was standing. Through a stroke of bad luck, his umbilical cord was severed by the attack. Shinji didn't waste any time mourning and continued to run backwards in his haste. This was a mistake. The eva's foot unexpectedly made contact with the roof of a car and Shinji felt himself stumbling backwards into the hillside. The angel was right on his tail.

"I've arranged for a replacement cord and rifle 30 kilometers east. I've marked the location on your HUD. Get up and head there now!" said Misato.

Shinji attempted to follow orders but the angel was on him before he could do anything. Twin whips came crashing down before he could even begin to move. Without thinking, he focused his AT field into his hands and grabbed the whips. As he grappled with the monstrous horror above him, he noticed the luminescent red core in its center. There wasn't a single dent in it from the onslaught of bullets he had fired earlier. His mind went blank. His goal was clear.

"Retreat!" cried Misato. "You have less than 4 minutes of operational activity."

Shinji paid her no mind. He pulled the angel toward him by the tentacles and used the momentum to kick the body of the angel away. He used the momentary reprieve to rise to his feet and withdraw his progressive knife.

"What are you doing!" yelled Misato. "Do not engage!"

Shinji rushed forward screaming at the top of his lungs. He saw the whips rising toward him as he charged, knowing it would hurt him, knowing he could still step away, but his feet did not stop. He violently jabbed the knife into the large red sphere and grit his teeth as the glowing whips pierced his chest in retaliation. Shinji yelled out in pain, but pressed the knife ever forward. Time ticked away as they wrestled each other for the last vestiges of life.

The angel grew weaker and weaker, but Shinji never let up on his attack. He screamed along with the burning pain in his chest, until the angel moved no more. Then all he could hear was his own haggard breathing and the sound of Misato hailing him over the radio. Then the cabin went dark and the radio cut out.

All he could hear was his breathing. Gasping slowly. In and out.

"What were you thinking?"

Shinji was surprised to see Misato angry because he didn't think she was capable of it. Of all the people he'd met since moving to Tokyo-3, Misato had treated him the kindest by far. He wasn't exactly afraid of Misato as she hovered above him, explaining his apparent ineptitude. But he found the image to be very off-putting.

"I just wanted it dead," said Shinji, staring up at her from his seat on the locker room bench. He didn't quite meet her eyes.

Misato barely registered his response. "You had orders, Shinji. Orders are given for a reason. Do you realize how much it costs to recover an Eva Unit after it's lost power? Hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of resources were wasted in that aspect of today's mission alone."

Shinji shrugged. NERV's recourses had never been his concern. If she was worried about that, she should take it up with Naomi.

"I saw an opening," he said. "I knew I could kill it."

"And what if your plan hadn't worked? You would have been stranded in a wounded EVA with no power. And everyone here, including you, would have died."

"It's dead," said Shinji quietly. "Not me."

Misato slapped him cleanly across the face.

She staggered backwards in surprise when Shinji slapped her back.

Misato didn't follow after him when he left the locker room, nor did she yell at him or demand that he apologize. She just let him go.

Looking back on the incident, Shinji was surprised that he hadn't been lead back to his room in handcuffs. But an escort wasn't needed. He'd been willing enough to go there on his own.

He should have realized that his room was a jail cell long before NERV confined him. It wasn't until the door closed behind him and refused to open, that it truly sunk in. The two way intercom should have been a dead giveaway. They could easily listen in on him at any time without his consent, and they frequently disturbed his solitude at will.

Shinji didn't mind the interruptions. The orders from the intercom where the only companionship he'd had for his first three days of confinement.

"Place your hands on the wall opposite the door and face forward."

Complying with this demand was the only way to receive food. The door would open briefly and an employee (Shinji never saw his or her face) would slide a tray of food into the room. The door would close quickly afterwards.

"You have fifteen minutes to shower."

The bathroom door was always open, but the water only ran during these brief daily intervals. The water cut off once the fifteen minutes were over. It did not matter whether Shinji was finished or not.

"Lights out in ten minutes."

Whether he was playing his cello or reading a book, the lights went out at 7pm every night, blanketing the room in complete darkness. It did not matter if he asked them for more time. It did not matter if he screamed at the injustice. The lights would not come on.

Shinji tried to reason with the people behind the intercom. Explain that he'd only been trying to protect himself. That all he'd ever done was what they'd asked him to do.

He tried threatening them. He said that he'd never pilot again if they didn't let him out. He painted a rather bleak picture of angels invading the base in mass, devouring each and every one of them in turn as he sat in this very room refusing to lift a finger.

He even tried apologizing. Not for hitting Misato, but for Toji. He was sorry for Toji, even if it wasn't his fault. He didn't want to do it. He would never do it again, he'd sobbed. He was honestly, truly, sorry.

But they never responded. Not until Naomi entered his room on the third day.

Naomi did not announce herself when she entered the room, nor did she require him to assume any position. The door opened and she walked through. Shinji could only stare at her in surprise, feeling a strange mixture of anger, relief, and panic. He wanted to run towards her and say something, or perhaps make a rush for the door, but he was too afraid to move, least his actions caused her to leave him alone again. He could only stare up at her in silence as he sat on his bed.

"Shinji," she said quietly. She didn't have to though. He was already giving her his undivided attention. "Do you know why you're here?"

Shiinji shook his head slowly and waited for her to elaborate. When she showed no sign of speaking, he attempted a hesitant answer. "Because I killed Suzahara," he whispered. It hurt to say the words, but he had to say something.

Naomi shook her head. "Try again."

"Because I struck Misato…" Naomi neither confirmed nor denied this. "A-and disobeyed orders."

"Wrong. You're describing the symptoms, Shinji. What I'm looking for is the cause."

Shinji braced himself for action. Naomi had not moved from the doorway, as if she hadn't intended to stay long. He didn't have the answers she was looking for, but he was desperate not to be left in the dark again. The chances of him tackling Naomi before she could close the door were slim, but he was ready to try the moment she showed signs of leaving.

"Why did you attack Toji?" she asked, throwing him completely off guard. He'd thought the time for questions was over. He wasn't eager to respond.

"I was afraid of him," he said.

"So you killed him?"

Shinji weighed his answer carefully. "Only because he was going to kill me."

"And how did you know that he was ready to kill you?"

"He told me!"

Naomi seemed almost surprised at that.

"And you believed him?" she asked.

"Yes."

"You believed that killing him first was the only way to stop him?"

"Yes!"

"What about Captain Katsuragi. Was striking her the only way to stop her from striking you?"

Shinji knew that there was no right answer to this question, but he could not bring himself to stay silent.

"She shouldn't have hit me."

"Yes," said Naomi, "And you shouldn't have hit her."

Shinji couldn't believe what he was hearing. "You told me to defend myself."

"Yes, I did," said Naomi, unmoved by his incredulity. "It was more important than anything that you learn to do so. You were right to take action, in both situations and I don't fault you for it."

"Then why am I locked up here?"

"Because you have not learned proper discretion." Shinji only had a vague idea what that word meant. He was surprised and relieved when Naomi came to sit down next to him on the bed.

"Captain Katsuragi hit you because you because you did not follow her orders. She felt that if you refused to follow her orders in the future, it might lead toward failure in a battle. If you simply followed her orders from then on, you would never have been struck. If you had lied about being willing to follow her orders, you probably still might not have been struck. Or if you had the presence of mine to report to me or another employee about her misconduct, perhaps she would have been reprimanded instead. These are three of many non-violent options you could have used to prevent yourself from being attacked in the future."

Shinji kept his silence.

"The situation with Toji Suzahara was the same. Instead of taking the life of a fellow human being, you could have simply transferred, as he suggested. If you did not believe that a threat on your life would drive me to intervene, you could have gone to a teacher with the information. Or even the police. Given that you are being watched almost all the time, you could have easily avoided being alone with Suzahara and gone about your business despite his useless threats. There were numerous options available to you in both situations, and in each case you chose the most drastic."

Shinji felt his throat close in on him and tears began to well in his eyes. He'd done something awful… for absolutely no reason. He was ready to cry when the hard slap across his face drew him out of his self-pity. He looked up at her in shock.

"Proper discretion," said Naomi as if she hadn't struck him. "Is the ability to choose the most beneficial course of action out of nearly limitless possibilities."

She struck him again with an open hand and Shinji cried out in pain and anger. He finally had the sense to recoil away from her.

"You must always consider all the options available to you as well as any possible consequences of those actions." But Shinji was hardly listening to her anymore. He simply couldn't believe she'd hit him. The anger rising within him was nearly blinding.

"You can attempt to hit me back and satisfy your sense of justice, if you'd like, but realize that you'll be making an enemy where there was none before. An enemy far bigger than, Suzahara, or Katsuragi. You'll be declaring war on NERV… on humanity itself." She paused to let this information sink in. "Or you can truly take your situation into account. You are a known murderer who has assaulted his commanding officer. We'd be well within our rights to keep you here forever, or send you to prison."

Shinji spoke slowly through clenched teeth. "You need me," he said.

Naomi shook her head as she rose from her spot on the bed.

"Rei was declared fit to pilot yesterday," she said. "We want you to pilot, Shinji. But we don't need you. Especially if you can't control yourself."

This did nothing to alleviate Shinji's anger but a flash of uncertainty rose upon his face. He followed Naomi in panic as she headed toward the door only to be shoved roughly onto the floor.

"Use your discretion," she said evenly. "Stay here in this room for two more days. Show us that you have some self-control and maybe we can foster a working relationship that doesn't involve your incarceration. Or you can leave us now and face the consequences. The choice is yours."

After speaking these words, Naomi left. But the door didn't close behind her as Shinji thought it would. He stared at the space where she had stood for several minutes waiting for someone to realize this, but nothing happened. Shinji stood up from his spot on the floor and walked over to the doorway. He was surprised when the door didn't immediately close. Slowly he poked his head out and surveyed the hallway. There was no sign of Naomi or anyone else.

No voice came out over the intercom telling him to step away from the door. There was only Naomi's parting words ringing in his ears.

The choice is yours.

9A – Shinji Learns Why the Caged Bird Sings

9B – Shinji Learns that Freedom Isn't Free

9C - NERV Learns Why Tigers Should be Caged (Go To Chapter 10)

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