Creation began on 01-04-16

Creation ended on 01-22-16

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Different from You: Poisoned Desire

A/N: To those that think this story is something else below the bond between a young man and his little girl, I will make you feel something that you won't expect to feel.

Ritsuko's work on the Dummy System had reached a standstill in the month since the last Angel was dealt with by these non-Angel creatures that appeared after the Third Child and his daughter escaped from NERV. She couldn't get it to work with Unit-01 at all. The Eva autopilot system functioned well with Units-00 and 02, but the purple behemoth was met with a degree of stubbornness that seemed to mirror that of the Third Child and his refusal to help the paramilitary agency against the Angels. Although Commander Fuyutsuki had ordered that they leave the boy and girl alone after what happened with Gendo, the faux-blond demonstrated a similar drive to get what was wanted.

This is for the good of NERV, she thought, typing down codes on a laptop inside one of the MAGI supercomputers. His devotion to his loveless child is completely illogical.

-x-

Shado felt that something was wrong. It wasn't like she could see into the future or anything like that. It was just a feeling that something somewhere was off. As she waited in the waiting area of the building her father went to for his participation in helping these pharmacists with their new medical treatments, she found herself unable to look through even a magazine.

Suddenly, one of the doors leading further into the building opened…and out came Shinji, sighing heavily from having his left arm poked at with syringes. He looked at his daughter, the only person ever in the room, and gave her a small smile.

-x-

"…But ma'am, Commander Fuyutsuki gave specific orders to leave the Third Child and his daughter alone," a man's voice uttered to Dr. Akagi over the phone.

"That's the thing about orders," Ritsuko informed him. "There's always loopholes in them. Commander Fuyutsuki stated that NERV was to leave them alone. He didn't state that anyone unaffiliated with the agency couldn't apprehend them on NERV's behalf."

"This will cause serious problems if he were to find out that an attempt was made to apprehend the boy and his daughter without authorization."

"There's not really a choice in this matter. I'll leave the method of apprehension entirely up to you. Call back when the situation has been taken care of."

She then hung up the phone and scooted her chair backwards to look up at the red-colored Entry Plug that was the prototype Dummy Plug. It had all of Rei's synchronization data and thought patterns loaded into it, but it still had its flaws. She suspected that a mind less damaged and more human than the First Child's would've made the Dummy System more effective. This was why she wanted the Third Child and his daughter; to manipulate the boy, she would use his daughter as leverage.

-x-

It was probably nothing, but Shinji hated this feeling he currently had. It was like he needed to be on guard about something, to on the lookout for whatever was going to come his way, be they people or events. This might've stemmed from discovering that his daughter's birthday was the same day as his, which was often an unusual occurrence for any family. Unfortunately, it left him in his room in the silence of the night, his right arm under his pillow, holding the handle of one of his knives, just in case he needed to use it.

He had put Shadow to bed over two hours ago, but he still couldn't sleep.

Why can't I just be concerned for her? He wondered, turning his head to look out the window at the night sky. I mean, she's my only responsibility, and I feel as though something really rotten is going to happen soon.

-x-

Shado awoke in the silence of the night, but it was due to the bad feeling she still had. She got out of bed, carried her teddy with her, and stepped out into the hallway to her father's room to see if he was awake.

"Daddy?" She called out, seeing the door to his room was open, and poking her head inside.

"Uh, yeah?" He responded, raising up and looking at her. "What's wrong, baby?"

"Bad feeling," she explained.

"Oh, you mean you had a bad dream?"

"Mm-mmm. A bad feeling, like something awful is wrong."

Shinji sighed and gestured for her to come and sit on his bed.

"Daddy, do you get the feeling that really, really bad is going to happen, but you don't know what it is or when it's going to happen?"

"No, sweetie. I just get bad feelings I can't really describe."

"Could you describe them to me, please?"

Shinji inhaled and placed his right hand on his daughter's head.

"It's like…someone sneaks up behind you and pulls you away from the life you know and tells you something that changes your view of things. Instead of doing something that causes you pain, like punching you or kicking you and dragging you away, they just tell you something…and you still suffer."

Shado set Ursa Guardian beside her and said, "That's really, really sad, Daddy. I hope nothing of the sort ever happens."

"I do, too."

-x-

Screaming… It sounded like people were screaming. And the smell… Something smelled warm… No, hot…and getting hotter.

"…Daddy… Daddy… DADDY!" Shinji awoke and saw Shado on top of him, panicked.

"What? What?" He responded, smelling smoke.

"Fire! The outside hallway is on fire!" She whined.

He quickly put on his slippers and picked her up, carrying her through the hallway as it filled up with smoke. Then, he went back to his room and grabbed one of his knives and then went into his daughter's room and grabbed her teddy.

"Hold onto me, Shado," he told her, and he took her out the front door.

Other people were out in the hallway, gathering their kids and loved ones along with whatever else they could get.

"What's going on?" He asked an elderly woman who was carrying a cage with a cat in it.

"Nobody's for sure, but the going theory is that someone set the roof on fire," she told him.

"But that's crazy! Why would they do that?"

As they and many other people were heading down the stairs, fire started to spread through the halls, burning through the burnable materials. Out on the street, everyone that lived within the building…and at least four other buildings on the block had to watch as their homes were burning until the fire department arrived. Smoke filled the street, obscuring the vision of the people, and leaving them vulnerable to the unknown out there with them.

"Daddy?" Shado asked her father, who looked around them and saw only obscured bodies.

Everyone was a complete stranger out on the street as the sirens of the police and fire department came to reduce the damages done.

-x-

Ritsuko felt her cell phone vibrate in her lab coat and she checked to see that it was an unregistered number.

"Yes?" She asked.

"Doctor Ritsuko Akagi?" A male voice responded on the other end.

"Yes."

"That issue you spoke of has been resolved on this end."

"I take it that it wasn't too difficult."

"When a massive panic has occurred, not many people bother to concern themselves for others."

"Good."

She hung up and resumed her work on the Dummy System. While this might've gone against Fuyutsuki's orders, she believed she was doing this with the best intentions because dealing with the Angels mattered more than the choices of a fifteen-year-old single father and his bastard daughter of almost five years of age after doing a more thorough background check through the MAGI, discovering that the Third Child hadn't been ten when he was kidnapped by his kidnappers; it turned out he was nine going on ten when he had been kidnapped. And she was certain that, with a bit of mental manipulation on the both of them, the Third Child and his daughter would be more cooperative with NERV.

To be continued…

A/N: I hope the next chapter will be the one that surprises you all the most, because that will be the final chapter, no matter what. Peace!