Long time, yes, I know. But I'll finish this fic if it kills me!
… Well, okay, not if it kills me really…
What?
"I… Father really did that? He really…?" Shinji shook his head, trying to grasp what his mother had been telling him, all with such a sad smile on her face. Yui nodded slightly, still holding him protectively to her breast.
"He sacrificed me, in order to get me back," she murmured. "The Eva will only run with a human soul powering it-And the more closely related to the soul the pilot is, the better the synch rate."
"He… That…" Shinji began to shake in rage, his teeth gritting. The vanilla purgatory around them began to darken as the tortured young man's soul flexed its strength. Yui ran her soft fingers over her son's back, calming, soothing. Shinji took a deep breath and sought his center, as he did in his frequent martial arts katas.
"I know, Shinji. I share your anger. To him, it did not matter if I disagreed with him about Eva. It did not matter to him that there was another path, another way… All he wanted was to be a God. And anything human was to be damned." Shinji looked up into his mother's eyes, blinking back angry tears he'd repressed for so long.
"What… What other path? What did you intend for Eva?"
"We were wrong," the scientist reemerged in Yui's voice, as the conclusions she had long ago come to came forth calmly. "Humanity has whole new worlds, whole new levels of existence waiting for it. Earth is only a nest, Shinji. It raised us, nurtured us, allowed humans to evolve to the point where we could finally understand the truth."
"What is the truth?" Shinji asked. Yui smiled lovingly at him.
"That we are not destined to die here, to end with God's creation on Judgement Day. We are to be God's seeds, going out into the Universe, joining all the other aspects of Creation together. Humans, unlike other animals, have a need to explain, to define, and to learn. It is our defining quality to know, not to hate or to kill. We need, desperately, to understand. And the only way to do that is by going to the stars. And Eva was supposed to allow us to reach the stars." Shinji blinked, silently considering the information. His eyes lit up.
"The AT field. The Absolute Terror field…" Yui smiled approvingly. Even will all his knowledge of criminals and fighting and deception, her previous statement was still proved correctly by the scientist in her son.
"Yes. Through the AT field, much like the Angels do, we can warp space. It would allow an Eva, at full power, to move faster than light. I envisioned a world where Evas would be flying demi-gods, carrying special structures for humans to move out into the rest of the Universe. They would be our beacons of hope, hope for a better tomorrow."
"But Father… He did not approve?" Shinji asked. Yui shook her head sadly.
"No. His lust for power, absolute power, overrode all other concerns. Even his own family," she growled. Shinji took a deep breath, before jumping in shock.
"ACK!" He flipped over his mother and landed… Well, stopped some distance away. Of course, where the two where, distance and time were very much relative terms. Shinji turned and blinked at what had touched him in the back.
"Oh! Oh dear, Shinji, I'm sorry," Yui apologized. The tiny green… Blob sitting before her stayed still. "She was just curious about you."
"She?" Shinji asked, blinking. The blob seemed to shift, and Shinji was bombarded by emotions not quite his own. There was confusion, along with some kind of connection to him that couldn't be labeled, and a deep emotional bond between the blob and his mother. Shinji shook his head, gaping opening at the bizarre thing.
"This is the essence of Unit 01. You see… We didn't know at the time that Evas do have their own souls… Just not the kind of souls we're used to." Yui looked down with a smile at the tiny blob, which had wiggled up to her. Yui reached out a hand and stroked the soul, and Shinji got the strange impression that it was content in her company.
"Hers is not quite a human soul. She has emotions, naturally, and a concept of human feeling, but her mindset is completely new." The pilot's mother shook her head. "She's definitely female, I know that for sure, but she doesn't have, for example, a name like we do. She has a vague concept of self, but only really how it relates to me, and you, when you're connected to Unit 1."
"So, we… I mean, you created a new soul?" Shinji asked, full of awe. He moved closer to the soul of Unit 1, which gave him an impression of happiness in relation to him. Shinji was puzzled: She was happy just because he was, not because he was here, specifically. Hm…
"Inadvertently," Yui explained. "Emotionally, she's like a puppy dog, but her dependent self-awareness makes her kind of like a symbiotic creature. She has no interest in reproduction, eating, or personal entertainment. She is curious as far as it extends to you and me. And, of course, she has a protective instinct, but she doesn't know why." Yui sighed sadly, petting the soul.
"Sometimes I feel that she's… Half-done. That I've cursed her to be wholly dependent on others for everything, and that there are so many things she will miss out on. But, it is thanks to her form that my theory has been proven." Shinji assumed a half-lotus position, studying Unit 1 silently. Yui smiled slightly.
"How?" The boy asked.
"She has dreams; very big dreams. A very strong desire, nearing an instinct in its intensity. She wants—needs—to be among the stars. She gives the impression that they call to her all the time." Shinji started as the little soul floated up, only a centimeter or two from the tip of his nose. He gently ran a hand over her surface, marveling at the sensation of experiencing emotions by touch.
"Yes… The stars… I can hear their song," he whispered, almost reverently. Yui smiled broadly.
"If only I could show your father this… Unit One's soul is a stripped down version of our own, and yet, the need to go to the stars has remained her strongest aspect. Even as we speak… She is finally taking the needed steps to make her dream real."
"What? How do you mean?" Shinji asked. Unit One's soul fairly glowed in joy, a joy that almost brought tears to Shinji's eyes. He thought he would never feel such emotion ever again. Yui, her own eyes glittering, smiled even wider.
"The power from the Angel she devoured… And the power of our two souls is giving her the needed energy to begin what should have been the second stage of her development." Yui took a breath. "The Evangelions are part human, and part Angel, and all of them have this need to go to the stars. This need would have manifested itself by the Evangelion itself going through a metamorphosis, from a human-like form, to a form they themselves choose. The form that they feel will take them to answer the song."
"She's a gigantic butterfly!" Shinji gasped, as the soul glowed even brighter, being caught between pain and ecstasy. Yui, frowning, held his hand before putting her other hand on Unit One.
"Yes, Shinji. Please, help her? Help me? She can't do this alone…" Shinji blinked, took a deep breath, and placed his hand next to his mother's on the "skin" of Unit One, letting the words of one of his instructors from the past fill him.
"Do not anticipate, Ikari-kun. Do not be tense. You must simply be."
And so was Shinji.
"What? No beer this night?"
Misato looked up from her staring, snorted at Ritsuko, and turned back to watching the lifeless hulk that was Unit One through the reinforced glass. She pressed her face against the same glass, as she'd done as a child, looking down past her nose as her lips stretched out strangely over the cool silicon pane. She breathed out, and the condensation formed from her exhalation vanished almost as soon as it appeared.
"I have the scans from the X-ray machine," the blonde doctor began quietly. Misato grunted. Ritusko sighed, lowering her head.
"The Eva itself is changing form, within that," Ritsuko waved out at the glistening, thick sheeting wrapped all around the gigantic biomech, "cocoon."
"What, is it growing wings?" Misato asked derisively. Ritsuko sighed, before poking Misato's shoulder with the folder. The purple-haired woman scowled, pulling her face away from the window, and tore open the folder, scattering a few loose leafs of paper to the floor. Misato looked down at the clipped photos, her eyes widening.
"As a matter of fact… Yes," Ritsuko hissed. Misato made a face.
"It… it looks… Jumbled. Like it's a bag of bones… A mixed-up jigsaw puzzle…" The major closed the folder, shaking, before looking up pleadingly into the face of her old college roommate.
"Can… Can Shinji survive that kind of change?" Ritsuko huffed in exhaustion, slumping into a chair next to the major's. She pinched the bridge of her nose, her eyes tightly shut.
"I don't know. He's been absorbed into the psychic matrix within the unit itself. He doesn't have a physical form at the moment. He exists as pure soul energy, but even so…" Ritsuko took the folder back, opening it and looking down with mournful eyes.
"The Evangelion's DNA is changing. Its skeleton is altering shape, evolving into something I can't even begin to guess at. Maybe it's morphing to be more like the Angels. Maybe it's going to end up a horrifying mess, a hideous mutated freak that will die within moments of the cocoon breaking open. Hell, maybe it will become a butterfly. Your guess, amazingly enough at this stage, is as good as mine." Ritsuko dropped the folder of X-rays to the floor, looking up at the ceiling despondently.
"Maybe it'll emerge as a bat," Misato mused quietly. Ritsuko started, and looked at her with wide eyes.
"How…?" The violet-haired major smirked.
"I'm not as dumb as you might think, Rits-chan. I've seen Shin-chan when he's dropped the mask." Ritsuko shook her head.
"Do you mean figuratively, or literally?"
"Is there a difference?" Misato asked seriously. Ritsuko nodded.
"Yes. There is." The blonde sighed and looked up at the ceiling again. "Shinji is not really… Him. The darkness he tries to wrap himself up in… It just doesn't stick."
"He does look a little silly in that get-up, doesn't he?" Misato chuckled. "Until he starts to move."
"Indeed." Ritsuko turned to look out over the cocoon again, her brow knit.
"It seems like he's two people sometimes. The dark knight… And the sad little boy I picked up from the train station." Misato blew out a breath she'd been holding.
"He's not," Ritsuko whispered. "He just doesn't know who he is. Which persona is the mask." Ritsuko turned to her long-time friend, a question on her lips.
"Yes, I talked to Asuka," Misato answered simply. Ritsuko hid her surprise, and made a note to re-evaluate her original estimate of Misato's observation skills.
"How is she?"
"Distraught, but hiding it," Misato smiled sadly. "Not very well, I might add. She's also scared, that what's happening to Unit 1, might happen to Unit 2."
"It might. We just don't understand how this happened in the first place." Ritsuko bit her lower lip. "Maya's close to falling apart. Rei is more isolated than she has been… Ever. And the other Bridge Bunnies are about as demoralized as I feel."
"What? Were you having sex with him too?" Misato asked brazenly. Ritsuko smirked.
"No. I admit, I was tempted for a while, but…" The blonde sighed. "I care for him in a different way, Misato. I feel like his big sister, someone he needs, someone I also need."
"But no sex."
"No. No sex," Ritsuko responded. Misato grinned.
"Good. He's already got Maya and Rei, and maybe even Asuka, if she finally gives up on that dickhead. How many more women could he take?"
"He took on sixty armed men all by himself once," Ritsuko pointed out. Misato blinked. Ritsuko blinked. Misato opened her mouth.
"In a fight. Very taxing fight," Ritsuko hastily added. Misato nodded.
"Just to be safe, let's never mention that phrase ever again."
"Yes. Good idea."
SEELE was easily the most influential organization on the planet. Already they pulled the strings of the UN and every major world government with ease. They had a spy in the top levels of NERV itself, and Gendo Ikari was their most highly placed marionette.
Which was why the fact that this meeting with the Commander of NERV, already taking far too long, had begun to worry some of the committee members.
"He is late," SEELE 4 spoke.
"He will suffer for this impudence," agreed SEELE 5.
"Ikari is being lax, yes," SEELE 1 interjected, "but his progress so far has been satisfactory enough. Especially with Batman's continuing efforts to undermine our operation."
"The Batman should have been put down by Ikari months ago," SEELE 8 growled. "His carelessness should be punished!"
"Recall that Batman also took the 17th, right under our noses," observed SEELE 3 with no hint of irony, considering the size of his own snout. "We must work with Ikari if we are to complete the Project."
"And soon. Already, Unit 01 is undergoing the proposed second phase metamorphosis," SEELE 6 reminded them all. "We cannot destroy it, but if it emerges in the incorrect form-"
"No matter its final form, it will be all-powerful, and easily capable of defeating the remaining Angels," SEELE 3 stated. "And the pilot is still in Ikari's thrall."
"The Third is dangerous," SEELE 8 warned. "His rage against Ikari could destroy us all, armed with Unit One in its next-stage form."
"Then we will have to evolve the Production Series models to their final forms as well," SEELE 4 surmised. "With the Dummy Plug system we can still wield their power. And we will still be able to keep Unit One at bay."
"And what about Batman? He is still a threat to Instrumentality. He still lives, still fights, and still remains anonymous," SEELE 8 protested. "We must make his destruction the top priority!"
"A great deal of distress over one mortal in a Halloween costume," drawled SEELE 7. "He is still only a man."
"A man who has stolen Tabris!" Thundered SEELE 8. "He cannot be some mere mortal! And if you are too big a fool to not see this-!"
"Enough! Ikari approaches. We will discuss this later," SEELE 1 boomed, causing all of the other committee members to fall silent. A moment later, the holographic form of a man appeared in the committee member's midst… But it was not Ikari.
"Ryoji? What on Earth-?" gasped SEELE 6, before a loud party buzzer sounded over the communications system, causing all the SEELE members to cover their ears in agony. A mad cackling soon followed.
"Hello, stiffs and stooges! It's SEELE Joker on the line!" The hologram of Kaji Ryoji fell over, and his face came into complete focus. The SEELE members gasped collectively as they saw the twisted, dead grin locking the spy's jaws. Joker himself, with a demonic grin, entered the holocam's view then, waving cheerfully at SEELE 1.
"Lorenz, buddy! Pal! Have a nice nap in your cryogenic coffin? Hope those corns on your feet arent' giving you too much trouble this morning."
"What-? What are you doing here! Where is Ikari!" Demanded Chairman Lorenz Keel, aka SEELE 1. The Joker's grin widened.
"Uh uh uh! That'd be telling. In any event, I found your spy here thanks to some 'creative' applications of SmileX. But before he croaked, he spilled the goodies on your little knitting club! So, I then said to myself, 'Joker', I said, 'Joker old boy, these stiffs aren't having a good time at all. They're old, decrepit, and obviously out of their league.' You old boys need a shaking up! A kick to the wrinkled posterior! In other words, a new leader! A leader who can help you make the world a more cheerful place!" Joker spun about, like an energetic child who had properly learned to ride a bike.
"We have no interest in your mad ravings, clown," SEELE 3 snarled. "You are an insignificant pest. Your chaos and horrors will be forgotten in Instrumentality."
"Oh, not so, Billy!" Joker grinned maliciously at the startled expression SEELE 3 took. "Surprised I know who you are? Oh, don't be—I know everything, about all of you, right down to your favorite breakfast cereals and what section of the paper you turn to first. Oh don't look so surprised! It distorts your ugly mugs even more than usual."
"What do you want, Joker? Money? Power?" Asked SEELE 7. "Is that it? You're blackmailing us into giving you your petty desires!"
"Petty! Honestly, I wouldn't call my desires petty," Joker laughed. "They're actually quite in line with your own! Perfect world, free of sin, free of the fear of the Man Upstairs deciding to wipe us all out for coughing too loudly in the theatre, and all under your control! You want to be gods—Well, so do I!"
"You have no right to be a God," SEELE 1 snarled. "You have no call to taking a role in Instrumentality."
"Bah! I have plenty of rights and calls! For instance, my rights include direct access to each of your exact locations all over this hunk of silicon, oxygen, and hydrogen we all call home! And among my myriad ways, is this!" Joker held up a strange device, with his patented smiling face on the side.
"A little toy Ikari had lying around, but never had the guts to use! A capacitor for holographic emitters! And the lovely thing about it, is that you have no way of blocking it. And no way to shut it off. I wish I could say it was nice knowing you all, but a God can't be telling lies, now can he?"
An instant later, all ten members of SEELE logged onto the holographic conference began to scream, as their communications stations all around the world overloaded with electricity, electrocuting them all violently. One by one, they each burst into flames, still screaming as they collapsed, their holographic projectors soon shutting down. Where each SEELE member's hologram stood was a leering Joker card. The Joker brushed imaginary dirt from his sleeves and straightened his jacket.
"Yessuh, things is looking better all the time!" He drawled in a take on the Southern American state's accent.
Dun dun, dad da dun dunnnn!
TBC