Creation began on 09-12-20

Creation ended on 09-13-20

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Welcome Back to Dream Land

A/N: Sorry for the delay.

Popstar was a great place to travel to, with Dream Land being the friendliest of places there to settle down in…and forget about your troubles. But for Shinji Ikari, it was the only place he felt right at home. There were no feelings of sadness or hatred that could course through him while he was there. And he was glad to be back.

"Welcome back, Shinji," he was greeted by Lady Like, and he bowed to her.

"Hello again, Lady Like," he responded. "Um, do you know how many days went by since Kirby and I left back to Earth?"

"You two were only gone for less than a week," Lady Like informed him.

"Poyo," went Kirby.

"Hey, Shinji!" Lady Like's children, Tiff and Tuff, greeted the boy. "You're back!"

"Hello, Tiff, Tuff," he greeted back.

"How was Earth?" Tuff asked him.

"It was…unpleasant in some ways."

"Unpleasant" in the fact that his father was still the same person Shinji remembered him as, and "unpleasant" in the fact that despite being gone for such a long time, it didn't seem like there were that many good people there. While there might've been some that were good, Shinji began to doubt that the number of them was overshadowed by people like his father, or worse than his father in the way he behaved.

"I take it that your father wasn't happy to see you?" Tiff suspected.

"I don't believe he understands how to be happy for anyone or anything," Shinji confessed.

"It's good to see you back here, though. It's good to have you home."

"Yeah…I'm home."

"Poyo," Kirby accepted; Popstar might've been different from Earth for this human, but he called it home.

-x-

NERV was viewed as a menace to society, even if it was the only agency that was properly equipped to protect the world from the threat of the Angels. Some within the UN believed that if such a paramilitary group was to regain even a fraction of its credibility, it needed to be under a different leadership. The majority of the personnel was guilty by association with Gendo's negligent abuse towards Shinji when the boy was taken away by Kirby, and that led to several resignations and transfer requests that reduced the manpower. Unfortunately, individuals like Misato Katsuragi didn't have the luxury to resign or transfer from the NERV branch in Japan.

"Any chance NERV's reputation will be mended when we get the Second Child and Unit-02 from Germany?" Hyuga questioned his fellow Bridge Bunnies.

"I doubt so," Shigeru responded. "It might just be as worse."

"If people suspect we're anything like Commander Ikari, we'll be considered no better than he is," Maya remarked; she didn't want to be compared to the guy she worked for, no matter what state the world was in under the threat of the Angels.

"All NERV has so far is just the First and Second Children," Shigeru reminded them. "I doubt we'll be able to find a Fourth Child now."

Meanwhile, in his office, Gendo had become the recipient of various hate mail by the public. It hadn't even been a week, and he had enough hate mail to last him a month. And it was all because he pointed a gun at his son while he tried to shoot the little, pink alien that had taken him eleven years ago…and took him away again.

Fuyutsuki, on the other hand, only got one letter, and it was to remark how he was the only one at the time in NERV that actually apologized to the boy for how his return to Earth after eleven years away was anything but positive.

-x-

Shinji awoke in the silence of night with a heavy conscious for the fifth time. He got up off his futon within his little home and grabbed his blue coat. It had only been three days since he returned, but he had something on his mind that he needed to speak to Kirby about. Fortunately, the jolly hero wasn't too far from where he lived; ever since he became a resident of Dream Land's Cappy Town, Shinji's home was built near the shoreline, allowing him a peaceful view of the ocean…and Kirby's house wasn't too far away from the town.

Most of the town appeared to be asleep, but there were a few Cappies up and about that greeted Shinji as they saw him by.

"Good evening, Shinji," one of the Cappies greeted him.

"Good evening," he responded.

"Couldn't sleep again?"

"Yeah."

"What is Earth like?"

"It's…not like here. It's…sad there…and it shouldn't be."

"It used to be beautiful?"

"I really couldn't say. From a distance, it does look like a nice place. But when you get close enough, it just becomes noisy…and my painful memories resurface."

"It sounds like it used to be beautiful…before your time."

"Yeah."

Shinji resumed his walk towards Kirby's house, finding the pink hero standing atop the roof.

"Poyo," he went, looking down at Shinji, and then floated down to the ground.

"Hey, Kirby," Shinji greeted him. "I need to talk to you about something."

"Poyo," he understood; as human beings were a rarity upon Popstar, Kirby had a tendency to understand their intentions a little better than they themselves did, and it helped to be able to speak as they did from time to time. "What do you need to talk about?"

"That monster you fought before you came to get me," the boy expressed, "it wasn't the only one of its kind, was it?"

Absorbing Sachiel had enabled Kirby to fully grasp what he was and what his intentions had been. He was an Angel, an offspring of a much greater being identified as Adam, and that there were more of them coming to find what they believed to be what remained of Adam being held within that underground facility he found Shinji in.

"No, he wasn't," he revealed to Shinji. "There are more of them. Twelve more."

"Will they try to harm the people?"

"Yes."

Shinji felt troubled by this revelation.

"What you want to ask of me…just ask of me," Kirby told him.

"Kirby…you became my hero when I needed one to save me from the pain of my abandonment. Please…even if I never go back to Earth after what my father did…and tried to do… I don't want for what that monster tried to do to happen to anyone. You're the hero I look up. Please…be a hero they can look up to, as well."

Kirby nodded and accepted his plea; even if Shinji could never return to Earth, he still had a heart to care about the people enough to want them to have a future.

To be continued…

A/N: There you have it. Until next time.