Creation began on 05-05-15

Creation ended on 05-26-15

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Different from You: Judgment of the Mind, Judgment of the Heart

"…Docket Eternal Legion. The lost souls of the Innocent Dead versus Gendo Rokubungi-Ikari, member of Legion of Bastards. Multiple counts of depraved indifference, one count of child abandonment, several counts of child abuse, three counts of custodial interference, and multiple counts of exploitation." A deformed humanoid dressed like a bailiff told the people and creatures in the planetarium-like courtroom as Gendo was standing in front of a humanoid creature dressed in a judge's attire, but wielding a pair of spiked clubs instead of a gavel.

"Court is now in session," it said, looking at Gendo. "All shall rise."

Everyone that was sitting stood up.

"Now be seated," the judge commanded, and they did. "How does the defendant plead?"

Gendo expressed, "Not guilty."

"He's guilty!" A woman yelled from group behind Gendo.

"Silence the person that spoke up," the judge ordered. "What do the Innocent Dead have on bail?"

"The Innocent Dead demand the defendant be remanded without bail," a creature dressed in a night-black tux expressed to the judge. "The defendant is a severe flight risk and has made several attempts on the lives of the only family members he has blood ties to."

Gendo, deprived of any representatives, had to represent himself, and uttered, "I'm not a flight risk. I have significant ties to the Japanese community."

"Yet the defendant was seen and encountered on US soil and not once, but twice attacked a young father and his daughter on US soil," the tux-wearing creature explained the dangers Gendo represented if left to run loose. "And last time it was ever checked, the defendant was ordered by his erstwhile superiors to leave them alone, and later threatened by the Dragon of the Sea and the Phoenix of the Sky to leave them alone, both times where he refused, even when deprived of an organism called Adam, which he was going to use to harm others."

"I lost Adam and his AT-Field," Gendo defended. "I was no threat as an ordinary man."

"Even ordinary men pose great danger to those that desire only peace," the judge expressed. "The defendant is to be remanded without bail."

-x-

In the solitude of his cell, in the presence of a creature resembling a clown, looking down at him from up in the air, upside-down, Gendo found the silence to be a different torture towards him.

"Heh-heh-heh-heh!" The clown cackled. "Baddie Gendo, stuck in a cage, hated by his son and feared by his grand baby."

"Do you ever shut up?" Gendo asked the clown, who was the only noise in his cell.

"You grabbed a little girl by her head, pulling several strands of hair out," the clown snickered. "You tried to hammer her father, push him to the point of desperation, make him do something stupid. You can't stand to see others being happy, like there's nobody that can be more happy than you are when you're with your wife. That is nothing more than a selfish belief, a falsehood claim. Anyone can find happiness, with or without others involved in their lives, if they try to do their best. But you never did try to find happiness with your son…and when you discovered that he had a child of his own, you became disgusted that he was trying to build a life with her, up to the point that you would try to separate them and make their lives miserable."

"What choice did I have? Gendo retorted. "He wasn't supposed to have any children! He was supposed to be emotionally crippled, incapable of defending himself and only able to do as he was told."

"Everyone has the right to decide what they will and will not do for themselves or others, as they possess the blessing and curse of free will. But you, on the other hand, don't like it when others think for themselves, when they decide to take chances and want to get away from you live on their own. Did you ever even tell your granddaughter that you cared about her or her father?"

"I never loved them!"

"That's a pity, as it will reflect badly on your fate."

"No, I need to make this known. I don't love my son and I don't love my granddaughter!"

The clown's face contorted into an expression of woe.

"If you don't love them, why pursue them?"

"To get my wife back from God!"

"So, you have a grudge against the all-powerful and righteous one himself, hmm?"

"Why did he give her to me if he was going to take her back from me?"

"God gives and takes from all beings in order to teach them not to be boastful of their existence. He teaches so that our humility…and our humanity…allow us to grow and change. We receive his gifts so that we may cherish them for as long as we're allowed them…and cope with their absence once he takes them back."

"God is cruel! God is a cheat!"

"Wrong. God is wise and just is his decisions. Everything that happens to everyone is for a reason, for better or for worse."

-x-

"…Have the jurors reached a verdict?" The judge asked members of the Innocent Dead that were selected to decide Gendo's fate.

"We have, Honorable Judge Man," a woman answered.

"On one of the primary counts of the indictment, depraved indifference, how do you find?"

"We find Gendo Ikari guilty."

"On one of the primary counts of the indictment, child abandonment, how do you find?"

"We find Gendo Ikari guilty."

"On one of the primary counts of the indictment, child abuse, how do you find?

"Guilty."

Gendo couldn't believe this was happening to him.

"…Guilty," a man had uttered after the jury was asked about his crime of custodial interference over Shinji's daughter.

"And on the final count of the indictment, kidnapping, how do you find?" The Judge Man asked them.

"We find Gendo Ikari guilty," another woman answered.

"Will the defendant rise?" The judge asked, and Gendo rose up from his seat. "In light of your actions, past and present, it would be considered a great risk to let you roam free. Therefore, I sentence you to life without the possibility of your mind being intact."

What the Hell is this creep talking about? Gendo thought; most would get several years to life without parole when convicted of crimes, but this guy said that he would spend the rest of his life without his mind being intact.

Suddenly, the world around him became dark, all save a pair of glowing flames in front of him, one blue, the other green. They materialized features in front of them that made him recognize them as the two creatures that kept his son and granddaughter protected from him.

"You?!" He snarled.

"You crossed too many lines to be allowed to continue with your path of torture…and you've caused more than enough harm to those that wouldn't see things your way," the blue, bird-like creature said.

"Within your mind is nothing but contempt towards anyone that expresses any degree of happiness," the mechanical creature added in. "You were even willing to destroy the happiness of a little girl whose only true companion is her father, who sacrificed half his health to procure for the both of them a happy lifestyle where they could both be safe from harm."

Then, they merged together and formed the same creature that had dragged him into the dark hole in the building his son lived in with his bastard daughter. It looked down upon him, forming a sphere of energy in its palms.

"This despair, the loss of the mind and all of its secrets, is reserved for the cruel and boastful," it told Gendo, and the sphere grew large enough to encompass the both of them. "You…and those like you…brought this darkness upon yourselves."

As the sphere grew larger, Gendo saw only darkness.

"Aaaaahh!" He screamed.

-x-

"…Is there any chance of him recovering?" Ritsuko Akagi asked the neurologist that monitored Gendo's brain activity.

"No," he answered her. "Right now, most of his brain looks like it's been charred and through Hell. Along with the other injuries he sustained, it's clear that somebody didn't want him to survive without losing much of his mental faculties. His brain just shut down. If he ever does recover, it'll have to be of his own accord."

Ritsuko looked through the viewing glass at Gendo, strapped to an MRI machine, periodically blinking his eyes to keep them lubricated, heavily sedated to keep him under control, and still saying, "Exodia Necross," whatever that meant.

"Does he have any family?" The neurologist asked her. "Anyone that should be notified of his present, medical state?"

"He has a son and granddaughter and his in-laws," she answered, "but they're not on communicative terms. Also, his son and granddaughter aren't in Japan, anymore."

A/N: Well, that's Gendo's fate for you. Do review, please. Peace.