Grandfather
Wow... I never expected a response like that... Thanks for the reviews and interest folks...I'll try not to bollock it up, but, remember, like the second album, the second chapters can be a bitch to get right.
Written by Dartz
Preread by Himonky.
I don't own Evangelion, someone else does.
Stuff might be mentioned that's copyright
I don't own it either
It's just a bit of fun anyway
Pine scented bleach.
That was the first thing Shinji became aware of. A tingling scent of industrial detergent. The next was the gentle beep-beep-beep of some nearby machine, timing itself out in electronic tones. The child's own weight sank into a soft mattress, a sterile smelling pillow under his head.
His eyes crept open unwillingly, the boy not wanting to see that grey cell ceiling anymore. Harsh fluorescent white light dazzled him momentarily. He blinked to clear his vision, the ceiling above him slowly shifting into focus.
It was, quite possibly, the first time he'd ever been glad to see that beautiful 'unfamiliar' ceiling. It was the same uniform white tile pattern, with the same, inform strip lighting. Even that solitary droning fly which pucked and picked against the fluorescent strip seemed as if it had been there since his first day.
"Oh thank God," he sighed.
It was the ceiling of the NERV infirmary, he recognized it immediately.
That whole ordeal must just have been some insane nightmare. It didn't matter to him one jot that he was in a hospital bed, all that mattered was that he was safe, and home. Slowly, his mind drifted out from the shadow of nightmare-disturbed sleep, and into the soothing light of a hospital ward. Slowly, he pushed himself upright in the bed, the duck-egg sheets pooling around his waist. He glanced to his right and saw the tower of electronic equipment monitoring his vital signs, a clear line running from it to his arm, pumping little drops of liquid into him.
A name was printed on the machine.
AYANAMI. S
"What the?"
Again, Shinji blinked, then looked again to make sure.
'AYANAMI. S' it read still, having stubbornly refused to change.
Must just be a misprint, he thought. Shinji didn't want to bother over it.
"Could Doctor Ikari please come to child services. Doctor Ikari please come to child services." a womans voice intoned digitally.
Shinji looked at the ceiling mounted speaker, thinking he'd heard his name, then down at himself. It was then that he noticed the red rings around his wrists, the skin having been rubbed red-raw by some mysterious force. It looked, almost like he'd been wearing handcuffs.
He shuddered.
The memory of that nightmare announced itself in his consciousness with a giant mental loudspeaker, dancing and waving its arms as it screamed for his attention.
"You wore handcuffs in your nightmare!" It announced with sadistic glee. "It could've been real y'know. You still don't know how you got here, remember? It could have been real."
Could it have?
How did I get here?, he asked himself.
Life just sort of ran into the back of his dream like a drunk driver into the back of a truck, bad enough to make it hard to tell where the truck stopped and the car began. It fostered a bilious uneasiness in the pit of his stomach, gurgling vacuously to itself.
It had just been a dream, right?
Of course it had, and he forced down any suggestions otherwise. He was awake now, he was in hospital, a hospital he knew well. The marks on his arm, they must have something to do with himself being there.
But, it really wasn't something to get unsettled about. It was like that first time, when that suspended tile ceiling had truly been unfamiliar, his last memory before awakening beneath it's stark whiteness had been a single, ocean green eye gazing back at him.
It was at that time he became aware he was being watched, a pair of hidden eyes crawling across his back like centipedes. Again, he shuddered, and slowly turned his gaze to his left.
Blue eyes met brown.
"Misato!" Shinji started, jumping in his bed.
The girl jumped back from him, looking at him with her head quirked, like a curious cat. It slowly dawned on Shinji that, whoever this girl was, she couldn't be his Misato.
No, she was much too young, only a few years older than himself in fact.
But she sure as hell looked like her, as much as was possible anyway. She had the same, or similar, raven black, almost purple hair, the same hazelnut eyes, even the way this girl pursed her lips was similar. Shinji would be damned if he hadn't seen Misato the exact same pastel blue pyjama's , only a little tighter and more revealing, perhaps because they were slightly too small.
The girl slowly withdrew back to the room's second bed, slipping solemnly into the covers.
Shinji's conscience crunched, his gut twisting itself in knots. He'd only said one word, and already he'd driven her away from him. It was like Touji told him, he really was hopeless with women.
"Sorry," he said with a gentle bow. "My name is Ikari Shinji."
The girl just looked at him quietly.
She said nothing.
Shinji groaned.
The girl wouldn't even answer him.
He sighed and flopped back onto his hospital bed and stared up at the ceiling. He knew the girl was still watching him, out of the corner of his vision he could still see her sitting there, regarding him with strange, curious eyes.
Maybe she's just shy, the boy theorized privately. Maybe he'd just frightened her with that first little outburst of his. Damn himself for not showing any self restraint, but still, he'd been polite and offered his name, along with an apology.
Why hadn't she returned?
He sensed maybe, that she might've wanted to say something, but for whatever reason she couldn't. The signal between brain and mouth had been interrupted somehow.
And just who was she?
She was much too old to be a new Pilot, but much too young to be working for NERV. Misato's sister perhaps? Or a cousin? Some close relation of his guardian-major at any rate. He found himself forcing himself not to look at her. He didn't want to be caught staring like a pervert.
Dear Lord, he'd probably frightened or offended her with his first outburst, he didn't want the girl to hate him entirely. If she could talk, he didn't want to first thing she would say to him to be a storm of vitriol that would make a sailor blush.
And still, she sat watching him, silent like a painted sculpture.
It was...uncomfortable.
He had to say something to fill that hungry vacuum of noise.
"What?"
Shinji kept his tone as neutral as possible, but still couldn't help but hear a slight annoyance in his voice. The child wasn't too sure if was his imagination, or his subconscious nefariously infecting his speech to reveal his true feelings.
Abruptly, she snapped her head away, forcing herself to look at some imaginary object between her kneecaps.
"Nice one Shinji," his inner voice cheered sarcastically, "You've only just gone and embarrassed her."
He had to keep talking. If he left it at 'What?', he'd just seem like a self absorbed creep.
"Can at least tell me your name?" Be polite Shinji, "I mean, if it's not to much trouble,"
The girl looked to him again, her chestnut eyes adopting a sullen hue. She cast her gaze down, not making eye contact with Shinji. He wasn't sure if he should blame her or not, but somehow, it didn't seem fair. After all, he'd introduced himself, it would only be polite for her to return the gesture. So then, why hadn't she?
The question hungered for an answer. Did she hate him? Was she shy? Could she understand what he was saying even? Or, she could be a little...'lacking' in some mental areas.
No, it wasn't any of them.
What seemed most likely, was the most simple explanation.
"She just doesn't want to talk to me," he sighed privately.
He watched her for a few minutes as she slowly dropped off into a restless sleep. His body wanted to follow her, but, each time his eyes closed, he could see that black cell, its darkness stretching out into a claustrophobic infinity.
And that noise that seemed to rise up from beneath, a hollow monotone hiss, that same ocean sound that trapped inside a seashell. Shinji knew it couldn't possibly be the same noise, yet he could still hear it. However faintly, it was still there. The more he tried to pretend it wasn't, the deeper dug between the pillows, the louder it seemed to be. It was almost coming from inside himself.
He groaned.
Fucking nightmares.
I...I
How pathetic.
The rat was dead, that much was plainly obvious, it's plump, lifeless body suspended by latex gloved fingers pinched around it's brown tail. The scientist glanced at her own, red tinted reflection, in glassy eyes that could no longer see her. Her brown hair was rough, and somewhat unruly, a little like the rat's she admitted privately. Her eyes were heavy, weighed down by a long sleepless night, and mild disappointment, pushed deep into her skull by invisible fingers.
The rat was dead.
"Subject B-two-one-one-seven deceased. Cause of death: deep pulmonary infection due to aspiration of E-Coli bacteria." she noted to her dictation machine.
The black box answered with a compliant click and she placed it gently on her workbench top. The rat, however, was just dropped into a danger-yellow box marked 'BioHazard'. It landed with a limp thud, before being sealed off.
In a few hours, it would be deep beneath lake Ashino, along with its other brothers and sisters, where it would sit in hermetic isolation for a few thousand years.
It was somewhat ironic, she noted to herself, that the purpose of her research, the reason the rats had been killed, was the development of something that would be 'Eternal proof of mankind's existance' as her professor had so eloquently put it. The irony of it being, mankind's legacy to eternity could well be a few dessicated rodents in sealed steel boxes instead, if she couldn't solve this final problem.
And damned if it wasn't a stupid little one too. Four years of hard slog, of late nights of grand genetic manipulations, accelerated cell mitosis, apoptosis inhibition, testing and retesting, all to be called to a halt by a matter of personal hygiene.
It seemed stupid, because it could be boiled down to such an insignificant sounding thing.
"But at least when the Earth, the Sun and the Moon are gone, a bunch of mummified labrats will remain." she remarked dryly, to whoever may have been listening. The young scientist chuckled humourlessly to herself. The joke had quickly gotten as stale as week old sake that had been left beneath a radiator.
Only her minds voice dared follow it with a biting chaser.
"Eternal testimony to my failure,"
She grunted. That left a vinegar taste in her mouth, almost as bitter as that cold coffee she'd swigged, and just as lingering. She just wished she could spit the thought out as easily as the curdled beverage.
She started a new pot of the brown elixir brewing, while waiting for a new rat. While Yui wasn't sure exactly what she was going to do with it, beyond dunking it in a tank of life support liquid and recording the results, the scientist hoped she'd think of something.
Otherwise, the show would be off.
No matter how many hurdles you leap over, her professor had once told her, it's always the devious little pebble you don't see that trips you up.
Especially when your eyes are focused on the finishing tape.
"Could Doctor Ikari please come to child services. Doctor Ikari please come to child services," a speaker in the ceiling announced.
The woman sighed.
It was then that there was a knock on the door. Standing in the doorway was a young orangesuit, with another sacrificial rodent pawing at its carry cage.
"You requested a fresh test specimen ma'am," the tech said.
"Just leave it on the desk, thank you," she answered him, her thoughts more to her own motherly duties.
The rat was left in its cage, supping at its water bottle. It was waiting to be tested, it hungered for it, to be analysed and categorised, and Yui found herself not wanting to disappoint the animal. But Shinji?
She had to see to her child, it was her duty as the boys mother. The boy wanted her, he needed her.
A red hotline telephone sat teasingly on her desk.
Maybe Gen-chan could?
Before she'd even realised she'd been thinking about it the phone was already ringing in her ear. A pang of guilt stung at the back of her mind
"Ikari," her husbands cold, sepulcheral voice answered.
"Ah, Gen-chan," she chirruped. "I'm kind of busy down here," she glanced at the scratching rat, "Could you take care of Shinji for me?"
"Not right away," the man answered, his tone softening. "I apologise, but I have a meeting that can not be postponed."
"Is it that important?"
"Of course it isn't," Gendou answered playfully, "But us men need our spare time to ourselves you know,"
Yui chuckled.
"Well, perhaps a walk will help me clear my head. I feel like I'm about to fall asleep here."
"Indeed, perhaps, you might take the time to catch up on your beauty sleep as well." her husbands disembodied voice suggested. "Not that you need it, of course,"
"I do need it," Yui sighed, brushing her hand through her pageboy hair.
"Then I shall talk with you tonight, Yui-chan, good day."
"See you tonight,"
The line cut off with an abrupt click as the person on the other end hung up. That feeling of disconnection lingered for a moment, when she realised she hadn't actually seen her husband for nearly three days.
Then, it occurred to her that, should events come to pass as expected, she may not ever see him again.
But, this was no time to dwell on such things, right now, her child needed her. As she left, throwing her white labcoat across her back, the rat spun in circles in its cage, before gazing longingly up at her with its red eyes.
Well, she thought, he'd just have to wait for another day then, wouldn't he?
I...I
Gendou Ikari placed the phone under the conference table, taking a single deep breath to pull his mind back to its current task. The world of fatherhood and the world as the head of a highly secret 'research' facility were mutually exclusive. If he dared linger in the wrong one for two long, the consequences to both could be disastrous.
And, perhaps, his wife did dote on the boy a little too much.
"I trust there will be no further interruptions," the blind man seated across the table grumbled.
"Of course not Director," Ikari answered him, staring at his own reflections in the mans jet glasses.
"This matter is far to serious to be interrupted by trivial family matters Ikari."
"I understand, Director," he answered flatly.
"A major security breach in a supposed secret, supposedly secure facility. I trust you are doing everything in your power to investigate this?"
"Yes, Director." Gendou intoned. "Budget constraints, and ongoing government demands for 'reconstruction aid', are affecting our ability to both perform our research according to schedule, and maintain a full security force. "
It may have been as subtle as a brick in a sock and perhaps as effective as said brick would be as an aircraft, but Ikari had to turn this around, he had to make this work for him, instead of allowing Keel Lorenz to gain a foothold. The verbal scrum had to be turned over to his side, or at least forced into touch.
"Don't push too hard Ikari. It may indeed be more convenient to us to just replace you with someone who can utilize resources in a more efficient manner. One who can maintain the timetable, and maintain a capable security force."
A minor loss, a few political yards at most, but also an empty threat. Lorenz wouldn't replace him, not for the foreseeable future anyway. Quite simply, there would be nobody able to his do job. And still, on top of that, the blind man tried to turn this meeting back to the matter that really interested him.
"We are investigating the breach at the moment, I will make a full report to you when I have my own answers, but, you may rest assured, that we will uncover the truth, and, who was behind them."
Ikari rested himself on his laced hands, allowing himself a private smirk beneath the safety of his crossed palms. There was no question about Keel understanding just who 'who' was.
"When can I expect this report." the old man questioned
"May I speak," Akagi interrupted,
Gendou growled softly. She was too brash for delicate matters such as this. Perhaps, that may have been the reason Keel would request her presence at these meetings.
"By all means Doctor," The blind man nodded. He was glad she had spoken up, that much was obvious to all parties.
Naoko ran her hands through her hair for a moment, before glancing at the papers before her on the table.
"We expect the final results in three days, but I feel this illustrates the need for further research into my theories on bio-computing. A system, similar to the one I have previously proposed, could perform an analysis such as this in under three hours. "
Gendou answered first, with a gentle nudge under the table, while Keel seemed to be actively considering the possibility.
"I have read your previous proposal Doctor," he answered finally, "I found myself asking why the Chief had yet to approve it,"
Naoko sat back, head high, smirking at Gendou for a moment, before the mans steel blue eyes glared her down.
"It would take too long to develop the concept to it's full fruition. Development of the ABHE would be complete long before the system could be operational. By that stage, the advantage over conventional off-the-shelf technology would be negligible for the cost involved." he said, unruffled.
"I would disagree. Doctor Akagi, you may have the funds you requested for the construction of a prototype to test your concepts."
It was a direct attack at Gendou Ikari's authority, and both men knew it.
"Thank you Director." she bowed.
"Ikari, you have three days. I will expect your conclusions then."
"And you will have them," Gendou said flatly, nudging his glasses up onto the bridge of his nose.
A nod of Lorenz head was all the signal an aide hidden in the surrounding darkness of the conference room needed to step forward, silently gripping the handles of the old mans wheelchair, and guiding him from the room.
"Do not interrupt me again, Doctor," Gendou growled, once he was sure Keel had gone.
Though he didn't show it, inside, he was seething. That woman could almost have destroyed his careful political machinations. One incautious slip of the tongue would give Lorenz all he needed to threaten both himself, and his family, all the Director needed was a hard and fast reason to do so.
"Come on chief," Naoko jibed, "You know damn well a good scientist has to make a grab for funding any chance they get."
She was answered by a stony silence, a plan slowly beginning to form in the middle-aged mans mind.
"Is the boy awake yet?" he questioned.
His tone wasn't too different to the one a mother stone would use talking to it's misbehaving rock-child, being cold, hard and leaden with superior responsibility.
"I don't know," Akagi answered, a little wrong footed. "He's been asleep for three days now,"
"Bring the boy to me, I wish to speak with him in person." Ikari said.
"I doubt he will say much more to you than he has already said to me."
She was answered only by a glare that would've stripped the rust from the Titanic, a pair of steel blue eyes boring into her soul and making it as clear as the deep blue sea itself, that the Chief was seething with rage, and that it would be safer for her to just follow his orders, than stay where she was and argue the point.
"Fine," Akagi grunted, muttering something under her breath as she left.
Gendou Ikari rested back onto his chair, exhaling a loud, passive sigh. It wasn't Keel that was bothering him, he could be dealt with for the most part, barring any unwelcome interruptions. No, it was nothing so seemingly important or deadly, it was the apparently simpler matter of his wife, Yui and the boy.
How would he explain the appearance of this child, claiming to be their son, to his wife?
How long could he rightfully keep this a secret from her?
And, what if the boy did turn out to be Shinji? God only knew how that could be possible, but what if he was his son,somehow?
What then?
The man who could stare down an entire room of angry diplomats, UN councilors and research assistants was having difficulty working out how to explain a runaway child to his wife.
What was it Fuyutsuki had often said?
No matter how many hurdles you could leap over, it's always that malicious little stone you never see that will trip you up.
I...I
"What's taking so long?" Shinji asked nobody in particular. Well, he could probably have been asking Silent Girl, as he'd decided to call her privately until he knew her real name, but she wasn't likely to answer.
She was sleeping, it seemed.
Shinji had watched her for a few minutes, transfixed as she kicked her way through some utterly terrifying nightmare. It was during one of these nightmares that the boy had heard her make her only sound, aside from the occasional snore..
For a while, he hadn't believed it could be anything but a primeval grunt of terror, a gasp that had agitated the girls voicebox, but the more he dwelled on it, the more he realised it had sounding like something.
There had been form to it, mutated and muffled of course, but it had the definite structure of a word, or more correctly, an attempt at a word.
Bapa.
That's what it sounded like.
It definitely meant something, but what that something was eluded Shinji. He felt that, if he could've understood that word, he may have been able to understand a little something about Silent Girl.
Again, the boy sighed, nestling into his own sheets. He glanced at the door one more time, but it stubbornly refused to open for him.
Boredom slowly dulled his senses to the point where he felt his eyes gently drift shut.
"Wakeup Shinji!"
A piercing voice snapped him out of it, the boy jumping up in bed. Silent Girl was in her bed beside him, staring at him with a sunny smile on her face.
Maybe she wasn't so silent after all?
No, she wasn't looking at him, she wasn't looking at him at all. There was somebody behind him, towering over him. Slowly, his belly boiling with trepidation he turned to face this new person.
"You!" he shrieked, his mind freezing.
No, it wasn't fair, it just wasn't fair. He was home, he was safe, and she'd followed him. That Doctor woman, the one from his nightmare was standing over him, clipboard in hand. Her burnt brown hair seemed to have curled up into a pair of devil horns.
"Nice to see you too Shinji," she remarked sourly. "I'm feeling lovely this morning,"
It just wasn't fair.
Silent Girl expectantly held a book in her hand, Entry Exam Success.
"Not today," the devil woman told her. "I have business with young Shinji here."
Shinji blinked confusedly, his mind still demanding a reason why she was in the NERV infirmary. Could this really be real, or just some demented dream?
"What?" he stuttered, his steel blue eyes looking up pleadingly at the doctor.
"The Chief wants to speak with you in person," The doctor answered, her voice matching the scorned scowl that darkened her looks.
Bewildered, he could still only answer with a short nod, before looking down at the bright orange uniform that had been dropped on his lap. On the breast pocket was printed:
AYANAMI. S
That name again. Why had they given him Rei's surname? He had told them his own name and they had eventually accepted it, he thought. Another mystery to add to the pile then. Again, he looked at the name tag on the cardiograph, then down at the stitched lettering on the boilersuit uniform. He had to at least mention it, if only to make sure it hadn't been an error.
"Excuse me," he started with meek, gentle politeness, "But my name is not Ayanami it's..."
"It is for security reasons." Akagi cut him off, hard. "Now be quick, the Chief does not like to be kept waiting."
"Oh,"
Self consciously, Shinji looked down at the mandarin suit, then back up the the blue pyjama'd girl. Silent Girl was watching the unfolding scene intently, staring at it like a live action soap opera. An ecchi smirk creased her lips.
Shinji whimpered nervously. Fortunately for him, his bed had come equipped with a privacy curtain. It didn't take too long for him to dress, and the uniform was slightly more comfortable than a hospital gown.
He was quickly led by the Doctor out of the room, into another corridor, this time brightly lit.
He also noted that the uniform he wore came with the added the benefit of being thoroughly anonymous, most of the technicians he passed were wearing the exact same thing
One thing thing that struck Shinji was how much like the Geofront this building was. Some lazy architect had obviously been recycling designs. Even the name plates seemed the same. Cranial Nerve 300-310 Psychiatric, a stamped bronze plate beside him read. He followed to lift five, which he knew led both to the cages below, and also up to the command levels.
The directory hung from the wall though, gave different names for both. Cage seven, where Unit 01 would usually be stored, was listed here as Surface Cargo elevator/storage.
Other differences, mostly petty items, slowly began to announce themselves. This building seemed seemed so anachronistic and outdated. He saw a box of fresh new floppy disks being carted to an unknown destination, a mobile phone with an extendable antenna. None of the doors even had any silver keycard readers, or automatic locks. The only security came from the occasional blue jacket MP with a steel brick-like portable card reader. Everything seemed a decade out of date, at least.
He watched a young woman jog past, a mouse-brunette wearing a concrete grey school uniform, a clutch of school books tucked under arm. She looked to be about Shinji's age, around thirteen or fourteen, a freshly blossomed flower, colourful, gentle and sweet smelling.
He followed her with his eyes right up until the moment he bumped into something soft and warm, and landed flat on his ass. There was a gasp of surprise about the moment Shinji felt the shock of the impact shoot up his spine. His visions blurred and he shook his head vigorously. Shinji looked up at the feminine silhouette standing over him.
"You should watch where you're walking, young man," she chided him in a soft, tissue paper voice. Not angry, more...correcting.
Rei? Shinji thought. The silhouette stood over him, features darkened by the bleaching bright striplight above. She certainly looked like Rei, same proportions, same hair style, even her voice was the same. Okay, not quite the same, Rei's voice tending to have a more monotone quality to it, a very flat pitch, but close enough as to make no odds.
And frankly, Shinji hoped it was Rei.
Slowly, the figure came into focus. No, she wasn't Rei, This woman's hair was a burnt brown instead of Ayanami's sky blue. This woman was a scientist, wearing the same labcoat as Akagi, and Shinji knew he'd never met her before. Even still, as he picked himself up of the floor, he couldn't shake the overarching feeling that he'd met this scientist somewhere before.
It was unsettling.
And he sensed that this woman was utterly important to him, but he couldn't go any further than that. He stared for a moment, trying to place her soft, soothing features.
She could almost be...
"Where I come from, children usually apologize if they bump into an adult," the scientist stated, a gentle annoyance creeping into her tone.
Shinji cringed at his own impolite stupidity.
"Sorry," he stuttered.
Still, Shinji could see why he had been so mistaken. This woman and his Ayanami were so alike it was uncanny. Perhaps that was why she seemed so familiar to him.
"Yui-chan, I'm just taking the boy here to see the Chief," Naoko spoke hurridly. "I'll talk to you later."
"Mommy, are we going yet?" a voice pleaded.
Shinji looked behind the scientist to see a young, blue eyed boy wearing a bumblebee stripe shirt staring brightly up at him. Shinji faintly remembered having one just like it.
"Oh, of course Shinji," The scientist said warmly. "I'll buy you a nice packet of sweets on the way for being so well behaved, not like this other rude boy here."
"Yay!" the little Shinji cheered.
Shinji remembered his mother, they way she used to do things like that for him, and felt a strange bitter envy wash over him. He was jealous of the child, he was sure of it, a sinister envy simmering deep within in him.
And a biting headache
"Mommy, my head hurts," Shinji whimpered, the child grimacing.
The voice squealed in the elder child's ears, an amplifiers feedback drilling from within his skull, a piercing shriek punching hard from within his very mind, like a choir of a hundred migraines all screaming for his attention at once.
"Gah...what the?" he grunted, his legs buckling. Shinji gasped for breath as he struggled to keep himself standing, fighting to form a coherent thought.
The last time he'd felt anything like this...the last time he'd felt like this...the last time.. It was when... as boy...Yes, he'd been a boy...
"Mommy!" the boy shrieked. "It hurts!"
"Come along Shinji, I've got medicine at home." the scientist tugged at the boys arm. "I'm sorry, I don't know what's gotten into him all of a sudden, " she made a quick excuse, before half-dragging the crying child along the corridor.
Shinji stumbled to follow, his senses howling in anguish, before an iron grip took him by the shoulder.
"Ayanami, hurry up, we'll be late for the meeting,"
Shinji tugged against it, taking a few moments to remember that, for the time being, he had to answer to that name. He lurched over in the direction of the voice, even synapse in his skull aflame. He grimaced, grunting something unintelligeable, nothing but a guttural vocalization of pain.
And then, as quickly as it came, it ebbed away, gone in its entirety.
He looked up at the scientist, her middled aged features rattled, but still relieved.
"What happened?" The boy questioned.
She glanced at him, swallowed something in her throat, before forcing herself to look down at her clipboard. She doesn't know, Shinji realised, and she's scared because of it. He looked back down the now empty corridor, and wondered if perhaps it could have been that scientist or her child.
A sense of deja vu lingered long after the headache had left. Shinji would've sworn on his mother's grave he'd seen the pair before, but he still couldn't place their faces. They were shadows in his mind, and the same a shadow is made conspicuous by the absence of light, these people were obvious by an absence of memory.
Shinji knew that he knew them. And the more he thought about it, the more sure was sure of that. They were silhouetted against the background of his memory, and like a silhouette, they just seemed to just filter through his mental fingers each time he tried to grasp at it.
The building, the people, Silent Girl, all that he had seen of whatever place he was in seemed just as vaguely familiar. He found himself coming to, what, for most other people anyway, would be a rather strange conclusion. But given his recent past, and his experiences with the Evangelion, he wasn't quite so sure.
It occurred to him that maybe all of these people around him, all that he was experiencing might just be a strange construct of his mind, or the EVA's.
It wouldn't be the first time.
Or maybe, this could be the real world, and everything he thought had been his life had been the illusion. Perhaps, Shinji Ikari didn't exist at all, at least, Shinji Ikari as he was himself.
He stopped himself before his thoughts could get too far down that road. He'd just end up chasing his own tale with that one.
One thing though, that he recognised immediately, was the set of double doors he found himself standing outside. They were the doors to the Commanders Office, his father's office. There was no way he'd ever forget these doors.
Akagi lent forward and pushed a small red button beside the door, just beneath the grill of a speaker.
"I have the child here," she said to it.
"Very well. Bring him in," it answered in a cool, transistorized tinny voice.
The steel doors buzzed and the Doctor pushed them open, a rush of cold air chilling Shinji's body. A sudden nervousness clenched his chest and he hesitated for a moment before following Naoko in.
It was his father's office. It may have been brightly lit by bay windows along the walls, and it may have lacked the silver tracework, but it was still the same room. It still had that same cheap flatpack desk, and that man sitting behind it sat in the exact same pose his father did.
He wore the same white lab jacket that seemed uniform around here and the glasses were a little larger, but, that man could almost have been his father.
"So, you are the boy who claims to be my son,"
Shinji blinked.
No.
That couldn't be right.
He hadn't claimed to be this man's son he had...he was...
Oh.
It struck him like a bullet train.
"Um..father?" he mumbled, his jaw hanging half open.
But how?
"How can that be true, when my son is only three years old?"
Three years old...but...
Shinji glanced up at the Doctor, then down at his booted feet. His own hand clenched and released, a nervous compulsion that timed out his quickening heartbeat. His gaze darted back and forward, between the scientist, the doorway, his father, and his own feet, his eyes racing to keep up with his thoughts..
"And when, just ten minutes ago, my wife picked him up from childcare and took him home?"
Shinji gulped, then looked back at the door behind him. He was looking for that mother and child, the ones he'd passed. Maybe, it occurred to him, maybe the reason they had seemed so familiar...
It seemed utterly impossible, and yet, totally correct. That woman, that scientist, could have been his mother.
Yes, that was it. She was Yui Ikari. He knew, he knew for sure. That was why she'd been so familiar. It didn't seem possible, but deep down in the very core of his being he knew it was true.
But then how?
She had been dead for ten years. An accident, of some sort.
Yet, he'd bumped right into her. And damned if he hadn't been such an idiot too. He cursed himself momentarily for not being able to see it when it mattered, but it was too late to worry about that now.
But how? His mind begged once more.
A strange question came to mind, one that seemed absolutely insane, but still, one that could provide him with an answer once and for all. It was a question no normal person would have to ask, the answer being usually as plain as the nose on his face, but still.
If he was right, it would explain a great many things.
If he was wrong?
Then, they would just think him that little bit crazier. That wouldn't make a difference at this stage,
"We are running a DNA analysis, and will have the results soon. But, it would be best for you if you just admitted who you are, and why you came here. We might even be able to help you."
He steeled himself as best he could. Even so the words caught in the boy's throat. But still, he had to ask, he had to know for sure.
"What..." he stuttered, clenching his hands into fists. "What year is it?"
I...I
Well... it doesn't suck, does it?
If you do like it, perhaps you should check out my other stuff. Most of it's still going, in some form or another.
Also, for fannish discussion and a decent communtiy drop by at:
evamade(dot)net
darkscribes(dot)org.
Until Number 3
-Dartz