Creation began on 04-24-20

Creation ended on 04-25-20

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Talismans: Not as expected

A/N: Nothing is for sure, and nobody is guaranteed to be as predicted.

Three days had passed since the Third Child had arrived to the Geo-Front…and NERV was wondering why there was no sign of Angel activity. Based on information received by the Committee, the Angels should've returned three days ago, but there was no such sighting of any unnatural organism similar to the one that maimed the planet fifteen years ago. No, instead of a dangerous creature out to eradicate the human race…NERV had a fourteen-year-old boy that seemed to rather be anywhere but in Tokyo-3…or around his father.

"I don't understand," Gendo fumed, looking over the data he had received from the Committee again in his office. "The dating was accurate. Why didn't it show up?"

"Maybe the Angel decided to stay away?" Kozo Fuyutsuki suggested to him.

"No, we have Lilith, so it should've been compelled to come here."

"On the bright side, we have more time to train and prepare for it when it does show up."

"And the Third Child isn't as I expected him to be, either."

"You haven't seen him for over ten years. That's a long time for anyone to change from who they once were."

Gendo had looked over his son's file…and wasn't impressed by anything that wasn't supposed to be there. Ever since his son had turned six, he'd been living separated from his in-laws, and had exhibited a sense of maturity that didn't sit right for any child of such an age. And the aunt and uncle had been questioned once or twice about why their nephew had requested to live alone and away from them after a minor investigation had been brought to his attention about the boy's upbringing, revealing some rather-disturbing details that the boy expressed to knowing about, which left the guardians almost frightened by his behavior, complying with his request to live alone. But Gendo found it unlikely that his son was just capable of knowing things about his aunt and uncle that he shouldn't have known.

"What do you want with me?" Shinji had asked him after he was brought to his office.

"You're here because I have need of you," Gendo had explained, cryptically.

"You have need of me? You have need of me? Well, I don't need to be here. I don't need to help you with anything. I don't even know you, and you say you have need of me? I should've burnt that letter you sent to my apartment because coming here was a waste of bus fare and my time that could've been spent doing something else."

Shinji had turned to leave when Gendo spoke up again.

"We're dealing with a global crisis, boy," he told him. "NERV requires people of your age in order to deal with it."

"Yeah? Well, you clearly have others my age that can probably do so for you. I doubt I was the first person on your special list."

"You were the third and you were the only one close by."

"I was close by? I live in Ōta, which, last I checked, wasn't close by the Kanagawa Prefecture, which is here. There are others my age you could've picked, but instead of them, you reached out to me. Me, the one person you don't even have a hint of a clue about. Heh-heh-heh, what a joke this is."

"This is no laughing matter, boy."

"Oh, it's quite a laughing matter. You reached out to me, probably under the misguided delusion that I would, how would an irresponsible person put it, comply with your requests. For someone I've only met for the first time in eleven years, you have some arrogance to actually think that I would even consider helping you. I don't even know you, and you say you need me? I feel as though I'm the one being humiliated here."

Their reunion was anything short of positive. In actuality, their reunion wasn't even much of a reunion if the son despised the father outright for leaving him with people that didn't care about him. They were fortunate, though, that Shinji hadn't been able to leave the city yet due to the trains and buses not running, enabling NERV to at least conduct a trial run with the boy. But Shinji made it clear that once the trains and buses were up and running again, he would leave, and there was nothing they could do to change his mind.

"How were his sync scores with the Eva?" Gendo questioned.

"They were lower than expected," Fuyutsuki answered him. "Between thirty-three-thirty-seven percent. We had him in the Eva for six hours, and his score never went passed thirty-eight percent. There's something else, too. People have been talking, Ikari."

"People talk all the time."

"They're talking about a possible leak in NERV's security. Your son questioned the lack of morality of creating biomechanical monstrosities that cross all the lines of ethics, something he shouldn't have known about. Even if he only saw it once, that was a long time ago and he'd likely forget about it due to being traumatized."

"Leave it alone for now," Gendo instructed.

"You do know that if he were ever to know of the truth and have no actual understanding of the Eva, he would never forgive any of us for hiding this."

-x-

Shinji hated the scent of this LCL they filled the Entry Plug with. He hated it so much that he wanted to use his talisman just to get out of the plug and wander for a while. But he couldn't just yet; he tried to experiment once inside the plug and nearly caused a panic because people were monitoring his nervous system. His patience inside the plug was wearing thin with every passing hour they needed him inside this monster that he didn't want to be in.

Ah, I might as well have some fun while I'm in here, he thought, deciding to screw with the people examining him inside the plug.

He laid his head back and gripped the talisman in his left hand, masking the small glow it gave off…and flew out of the plug.

-x-

"What the Hell happened?!" Misato asked Ritsuko as they saw the monitors showing Shinji's brainwaves being nonexistent.

"We don't know," Ritsuko responded. "One minute, he was fine, and the next, he just ceased neural activity. The rest of his vitals are stable, but it's like he's brain-dead."

Suddenly, Shinji's neural activity returned to normal.

"Shinji, how are you?" Misato asked the boy as he opened his eyes.

"I'd like to get out of this thing, please," he replied. "Am I done yet?"

"Uh, yeah," Ritsuko told him. "Yeah, I believe we got everything we need for today. Hit the showers and return to your hotel."

"Is this a side-effect of the LCL?" Misato questioned.

"No, we've never had any signs of side-effects with the First or Second Children. Although, the Third Child is a male child, so it's likely that LCL affects male children differently from female children, but we won't know until we find another candidate."

"How long until he finds out that the buses and trains will be up in running within the next three days and he ups and leaves?"

"He'll likely find out eventually. The commander still wants him here to pilot the Eva."

"Well, that's going to be an issue: The commander wants him here, but his son doesn't want to be here at all. We're facing a crisis we're trying to prepare for, and the only pilot we have on standby is in the hospital."

"Two pilots, one is just uncooperative. Three if you count the Second Child, but she's in Germany with Unit-02."

"Actually, just two when you exclude the boy. He makes his opinions and beliefs known."

-x-

"…Urgh!" Shinji groaned as he regurgitated the LCL that he swallowed each time they had him inside the plug, letting the disgusting liquid flow down the drain in the sink. "Phbbt!"

Looking at his reflection in the mirror, he sighed at how awful these people at NERV were for hiding behind a legion of lies being spewed by the higher-ups that run the agency. Three days of this insanity, and it was only when he was asleep did he ever have the freedom to go wherever he pleased, to see whatever he could without being seen or heard. But despite this freedom the talisman granted him, he was more alone because he couldn't find anyone that saw him as himself, not "the son of Gendo Ikari", "the son of Yui Ikari", "that man's kid", "that dead lady's child", or any other variety or designation associating him with two people he had no memory of or a relationship with. It didn't matter where he went in Japan, unseen and unheard by people, he couldn't find anyone to associate with that would see him as himself, not as…their castaway.

Then, looking at the talisman he set by the sink, he gave a small smile and picked it up to place it around his neck again. As soon as he got back to his hotel suite, he would have a snack and then escape again for several hours. And once more, he would allow himself the indignity of learning about why that man wanted him here.

I live an empty and unfulfilling life where even a relationship with just one person that doesn't see me as someone else's relative is literally asking for too much, he thought as he turned around to enter a shower stall to wash the LCL that still clung to his skin. I have been forsaken by the heartless and irredeemable.

-x-

It was a mask. A creepy mask, with green hair and yellow horns. But the good thing about it was that it was locked inside a chest that had to be broken open, just to confirm that it was in there.

"I don't understand what's so important about an old mask, though," the woman that informed the boss man about her team's acquisition of the item when they found it.

The boss sighed and looked at the dragon statue in front of them.

"This mask is what will aid you in finding my talismans," it told them.

Suddenly, the shadows within the large room thickened and spread across the floor and walls. From within them, arms and legs emerged, followed by red eyes. It was men, dressed like ninja, with greyish-blue skin around their red eyes and exposed arms.

"Whoa," the two men that worked with the woman gasped. "Who are they?"

"They…are the Shadowkhan," the statue revealed, "and they are my minions."

-x-

He was unimpressed by his father's office activities. Or rather, his lack of activities. This left Shinji, who was watching him while floating above, feeling that his old man was the most unimportant man on the face of the Earth.

He must spend hours in here, Shinji thought as he looked around the dark room with red lighting.

Suddenly, the door to his office opened and revealed Dr. Akagi.

"The Third Child's sync graphs are too low to use him to pilot the Eva," he heard her say to his office. "He's not committed to NERV. Are you sure it was a wise choice to send for him? He's made it clear that he doesn't want to be here. The bus and train routes reopen in two more days, and when he finds out, he's going to leave the first chance he gets."

"Just make sure that he doesn't find out about them," Gendo responded. "He'll come around in due time."

That's what you think, Shinji believed; knowing that the routes in and out of this city would reopen in forty-eight hours or less was a sign that he just had to wait a while longer, and he would leave this wretched place.

"Is there anything else in his file that can be used to exploit him?" Gendo questioned; he clearly had no interest in looking at his son's profile himself to know anything about him.

"Other than the fact that he moved out of his aunt and uncle's years ago," Ritsuko stated, "only that he seems to work part time at an antique shop in Ōta. Auntie's Rare Antiquities, owned by a woman that people just call Auntie. Although the age requirement is fifteen, she hired him at age twelve because he needed early work experience."

"Working at an antique shop isn't a job that promises work experience."

"Well, his employer and profile say differently. He doesn't give his boss lip, always helps the customers when they come to look around at the antiques, even volunteers to sweep up after closing time. There was a note on his profile explaining that he's saving up to buy some antiques there that he can't find on the Internet."

"Contact his employer and have her terminate his employment there."

Shinji felt crossed. His job at Auntie's shop was the only way he was going to get what he fancied there and if he lost his job, it would be Kami-knows-when he'd be able to acquire his desired prize.

Stupid idiot! He thought.

"I tried that, but the woman claimed she couldn't let him go," Ritsuko revealed. "She claims, and I quote, "Ever since I hired him when he was twelve, I've never met anyone that was more dedicated to work at my shop than Shinji Ikari has demonstrated. I've never had a single complaint from him about anyone else that works at my shop, and I haven't had a single complaint from my other employees that are fifteen or even twenty-seven about him. He's actually the best employee I've ever had". A businesswoman's dream come true, a kid that actually likes working at a junk shop. When I asked what was at her shop that he was interested in buying off her, she told me to ask him about it. Most children would want bikes or computers, but he seems to want something ancient that he found there."

"We don't have time for his interest in ancient objects," Gendo expressed. "When he comes back in tomorrow, have him retested."

Shinji merely nodded as he left out of the office through the floor, deciding to travel to a different part of the base that he hadn't seen yet. He sank down further and further…until he saw large doors that looked like they were hiding something really important for NERV to have such big doors.

It's not like I'll get caught, he thought and passed right through the doors.

-x-

Stepping out onto the empty streets of this large city, a woman that appeared to be in her early-thirties, with long, glossy, sea-green hair, wearing a blue and white dress that exposed the red sphere on her waist where her navel was with black sandals had a look of disgust as she saw a sign that read Tokyo-3.

"He's not here," she uttered, "but something of his is here. I'll take that first…and then pay him a visit. Oh?"

She looked up at the night sky…and saw a young boy's soul flying into a building nearby.

"So, he's the one," she expressed. "If you can't persuade them, get rid of them."

To be continued…

A/N: Uh-oh! Something's going to shift. Who do you think the woman is? And what do you think Shinji's interested in buying from an antique shop he works at?