Creation began on 05-17-20
Creation ended on 05-22-20
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Talismans: Escape
NERV was in shambles! Over a dozen people were dead with more than sixty injured and Tokyo-3 suffering from collateral damage at the hands of some creature that was able to use water in ways the people thought only existed in comics and television. And it wouldn't be long before the public started poking around the large hole made that led into the Geo-Front and the NERV base. Unfortunately, NERV wasn't prepared to deal with such a situation that they couldn't claim was an Angel attack; to call a strange water creature an Angel and not retaliate would make the agency appear incompetent.
"The damages to the base are extensive, but under the Hayflick Limit," Maya told Ritsuko as they were on the bridge with Captain Katsuragi and Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki. "The Evas were undamaged during the entire attack."
"And our personnel?" Misato asked her.
"Twenty-seven dead, forty-eight injured, and several considering resigning. We were expecting large monsters, not a…not that thing that attacked us."
"None of us were expecting that creature to show up," Fuyutsuki admitted. "What about the Third Child? Any sign of him among this madness?"
"Section Two has been unable to locate him. Do you suppose it's possible that he left the city just like he said he would?"
"If he did, Ikari will throw a fit."
Even if Shinji Ikari had fled the city and NERV, Commander Ikari would insist that he'd be brought back to pilot the Eva, even if it was against his will. But the majority of NERV felt the boy was a waste of time; if he wanted nothing to do with NERV, then he should be forgotten about, not dragged back to an organization that was tasked with facing creatures out to eradicate the human race.
"He's probably hiding from us," Misato suggested. "The bus and train routes haven't reopened yet, so nobody can enter or leave the city until they reopen."
"He'll probably wait until they do reopen, and then he'll leave the first chance he gets," Fuyutsuki added.
"But why must we bother with the boy?" Maya questioned. "He doesn't want to be here or pilot the Eva. People have even been talking about him having an adverse reaction to the LCL due to vomiting it up after every test we put him through."
"Commander Ikari insists that he be here. In other matters, the people are demanding for an explanation as to what attacked them and whether or not it will return after disappearing. The PR team will be handling that madness until further notice."
"Are we going with the truth or covering up the truth?" Misato asked.
"The truth is that we don't know what that thing was that attacked last night, and covering it up will imply that we don't know how to deal with it."
If only they could see and hear…that Shinji was eavesdropping on their conversation, learning whatever he could without being noticed after hiding in another place where he wouldn't be found. He was going to find out whatever else they were hiding from him as he waited for the trains to resume running and then he'd escape, away from Tokyo-3, NERV and his father.
So they don't know who and what that was, either, he accepted to a degree as he hovered over Ritsuko and Maya. I should ask Auntie if she knows anything about someone named Bai Tza. That name doesn't sound Japanese.
Once he was certain that he learned everything he could from these four, he flew through the walls and ceilings towards his father's office, just in case there was something else he needed to know about…and finding the room darker than usual, with his old man's desk replaced by a longer version seating five other men, bathed in different colors. It appeared that he was in the middle of a meeting.
"…So, you have no idea if that was an Angel or not that attacked the base?" The man bathed in yellow questioned. "And you were unable to use the Eva against it?"
"NERV was unprepared to face it," Gendo responded.
No shit, Shinji expressed.
"What about the Third Child?" The man bathed in green asked him. "Wasn't he present when this attack occurred?"
"No," Gendo answered. "The Third Child was absent from the base when this attack happened."
"And his current whereabouts?"
"He's being evaluated."
That's bull, old man, Shinji stated; he couldn't believe that his father was lying about his whereabouts instead of simply telling the truth, since in due time, he was going to be long gone from this place.
"And we're still to understand that you chose your son to pilot the Eva?" The man bathed in red asked Gendo. "How has that been progressing for you?"
"He will do as he'll be intended."
Shinji merely nodded his head in the negative.
"It's not just the matter with the Angels," the old man bathed in white light, wearing a strange visor expressed. "Our main focus must be the Human Instrumentality Project. To us, this represents our salvation in these desperate times, and we'll not have it delayed with the second coming of the Angels or these…unexpected surprises from creatures that the Dead Sea Scrolls did not ascertain."
Angels? Dead Sea Scrolls? Human Instrumentality Project? What the Hell did I nearly get dragged into? Shinji wondered as he turned to face his father. What the Hell were you trying to force me into?
Deciding that he had acquired enough from his eavesdropping, Shinji vacated the base and returned to his body.
-x-
Mount Everest used to be a sight to behold for most, but after Second Impact, it became a no-go zone due to geological instabilities and minor reports of people disappearing around there after attempting to travel up the mountain. This made the mountain the perfect location for Po Kong's domain, as she loved the mountain after arriving to it, and building her small group of servants from the people that she captured. With the power of the Angel of Might, the Mountain Demon Sorceress had claimed the mountain and had amassed two-hundred humans to do her bidding or risk becoming her next meal.
"So, humans in what remains of Japan have found Lilith and have attempted to eradicate their entire species?" Po Kong asked Bai Tza, who had visited her upon finding her domain. "How pathetic of them and of Lilith to await the end of their existence."
Po Kong, unlike the last time Bai Tza had seen her, had undergone a massive change in her form due to the Angel's power, now appearing more humanoid and less of a giant sack of stones with stubby limbs, appearing more like a giant of a woman with some lines on her face that represented the cracks in a mountain. And she was wearing clothing, as well, consisting of a yellow robe with golden edges, complete with the Chinese character for "Mountain" embossed on her exposed waist.
"And worse, I decapitated her, but she still clings to life," Bai Tza informed her. "So long as none of us ever released the essence of these Angels we consumed fifteen years ago, these pathetic humans can continue to serve their role as a waste of space. But that means that we must keep from going back to this Tokyo-3 place where she is being kept in an underground fortress."
"Did someone say 'underground fortress'?" Bai Tza heard a grumbling voice and saw a patch of earth burst open to reveal a larger and armored version of Dai Gui, now sporting an armored tunic with spiked pauldrons over his shoulders. "This place seems like my sort of domain."
"Dai Gui," she greeted. "Were you able to locate our pathetic brother and nephew?"
"No…but I was able to locate this," he revealed to them as he raised his right arm to reveal one of Shendu's talismans. "This will be an amusing trinket to hold over Shendu if we find him."
It was revealed to be the Tiger Talisman, another of the more useless powers owned by their brother due to having only a means to unite the other powers within the Fire Demon Sorcerer.
"Fifteen years…and only one talisman?" Po Kong asked him. "You won't believe what Bai Tza has revealed about another talisman that has been found."
"I'm listening," he responded.
"A lowly human boy possesses the talisman with the power of astral projection," Bai Tza revealed to their brother. "He refused to hand it over when I demanded it. It might be a useless power, but so long as it belongs to Shendu, it has some value as one of his powers."
"If it's a race for the other talismans, we should find them before anyone else does."
-x-
Pacing around within the abandoned apartment unit, Shinji pondered whether or not to go down the street towards a convenience store where he could get something to eat as he waited for the transportation services to return to work and he could leave. And then he made his choice to grab his bag and vacate the building to go feed his stomach and silence his hunger; the desperate and passers-by couldn't think straight running on fumes. The sooner he ate something, the sooner he could think about other things. His only hope was that nobody from NERV was looking for him and intended to take him back there.
"…What on Earth was that thing last night?" He heard a woman say to another woman as he walked down the sidewalk.
"I don't know, but I can't live in this city if it comes back," the other woman expressed. "I wouldn't have moved here if I knew that this city was going to become a battlefield. I'm taking my kids and going to my mother's. You?"
"I am not having my baby here, that's for sure. The news only says that it's an unidentified threat. That's just another way of saying that they don't know what it was, either."
Shinji sighed as they were kept in the dark about Bai Tza. As much as he could've told at least them about her name, just telling them that would've put him in danger of getting dragged back to NERV. All he could do…was keep his mouth shut.
"Do you know when the trains will be running?" He heard the women talk again.
"Tomorrow morning," the other woman answered. "I'm going over to the station later to buy a ticket to leave."
Shinji smiled as he learned the exact time the trains would be running again. Now that he knew, he could go get himself a ticket and begin making his way back to Ōta. Upon reaching the store, he grabbed a bag of chips, a box of gummies and a cup of instant ramen.
"Say, you don't live around this city, do you, kid?" The counter clerk asked him as he paid for his items.
"No, sir," he answered, which was true; he didn't live in Tokyo-3, just visiting and would be leaving as soon as he could. "I'm just waiting on the trains to return to service."
"Where you heading, stranger?"
"Home."
-x-
"Hey, we may have gotten a hit on the Third Child's whereabouts," went Shigeru to Misato, putting down the phone on his console. "A traffic camera spotted a teenage boy going into a convenience store fifteen minutes ago."
"Where?" Misato asked.
"The demolition sector."
"Have Section Two investigate."
-x-
Walking down the street with his cup of ramen, Shinji found a park and sat at a bench by the water and tried to relax as best he could. Tomorrow morning, either six or seven in the morning, the trains would be running again. All he had to do was wait until then. And then he downed the rest of his ramen.
But before he could throw the empty cup away into a compost bin, he saw a pair of men in dark suits down the path leading into the park, wearing dark glasses and looking his way. If they were affiliated with the same group of black suits that worked for NERV, then they were likely looking for him, to take him back to NERV, back to his father…and he wasn't going to have that happen to him. He turned around to look for another bin at the other end of the park.
"Hey, you!" He heard a man call out. "Are you Shinji Ikari?!"
But he kept on walking away.
"Stop! Hey, I said stop!" The man yelled, but Shinji looked back and saw that the black suits were coming towards him…and he couldn't stop.
He ditched the empty cup and ran as fast as he could.
Screech! A blue Renault came to a halt in front of him and he saw Misato Katsuragi.
"Shinji Ikari, stop!" She ordered him, but he just continued to run down the street.
-x-
"…We know that he's likely waiting for the trains to return to service, so he'll want to stay as close as he can to the nearest station where a train will take him out of the city," Ritsuko informed Gendo when he was told that Section Two and Captain Katsuragi had located the Third Child…and lost sight of him as he fled. "Sir, is it really necessary to have him here to pilot the Eva? There are other candidates we can choose to fill the void he has left…"
"We need him here," Gendo responded, refusing to let his son leave until after he had served his purpose to NERV. "He is integral to our operation."
"Even though he hasn't shown us any significant results in his synchronization with the Eva? He's not even trying to sync with it. He's made it clear that he wants nothing to do with us or the Eva? Why not just cut him loose?"
"Because then we'd get nowhere without his assistance," Gendo claimed. "If he continues to refuse, then reeducate him if you have to."
Reeducation, or rather brainwash the boy, wiping away his current state of mind in order to make him pliable, but Ritsuko was unsure if that would work on someone like Shinji, who could've focused so much on hating his past and anyone he was related to, such a tactic may not do anything to break him.
"Were you able to find out anything else of this woman he works for?" He asked her.
"Yeah," she revealed. "Historia Rekishi, AKA 'Auntie'. Eighty-seven years old, an illegitimate child of an American man and a Japanese woman, and her background is full of periodic gaps going back fifty years. Operates her antique shop out of a warehouse in Ōta with a work staff of twenty-five, including the Third Child. It appears that she also serves as a type of unlicensed guardian of sorts for half her employees, mostly runaways and at-risk teens. They help her around the shop while she helps them continue their education."
"What about family ties?"
"Nobody on her father's side. There was a cousin on her mother's side, but they haven't seen or spoken to one another in twenty years. After her mother's passing, this lady kept to herself. I doubt there's anyone that could tell us anything about her that warrants NERV or the police."
Ring-ring! The phone on Gendo's desk rang and he picked up.
"Ikari," he spoke, hearing someone on the other end inform him of something. "When was this? Did they find him? Find him. Use force if you have to."
"I take it that the Third Child was found again?" Ritsuko asked him.
"The people within the city just made a huge demand to have the trains leaving Tokyo-3 immediately, otherwise they'll riot."
"Some people don't want to be here longer than they intended to."
"Cowards are always looking for a way out of a situation they're in."
-x-
Again, he hated the fact that he had to run due to the fact that he was being chased by people he wanted nothing to do with. If he hadn't come to this stupid city, Shinji wouldn't be trying to run and hide from people as he sought a way to leave it. And now, here he was hiding under cardboard boxes in an alleyway, just trying to evade the black suits and Katsuragi because he wanted to go back to Ōta. He considered using the Sheep Talisman again to keep watch while letting his body recoup, but if he let his guard down while people from NERV were nearby, he was at their mercy.
They have to give up sooner or later, he thought.
Flash. He used the talisman and looked around the neighborhood he was hiding in, unseen by anyone on the streets.
"…So, they're gonna riot on the streets if the trains don't start up now?" He heard a man say to a woman as they were walking down the street.
"Yeah, it's mostly people from other cities," the woman explained. "The majority of the people that live here all work for that NERV agency. Honestly, I don't want to be here any longer, and will riot if it means leaving."
"Isn't that group currently looking for a kid that is currently hiding from them?"
"Yeah, I heard it was this madman's son. I feel sorry for the father, really. His own son hates him and wants nothing do with him. It is his own fault, though. He left his kid alone with some relatives I heard gave him Hell until he had to get away from them. The Ikari family is mostly bad blood ever since that guy married into the family and was believed to have killed his own wife in an experiment."
Always the same, thought Shinji as he watched them walk away. Either he killed her or he didn't and he's just a loser whose life isn't going anywhere, no matter what he does.
-x-
"…Fifteen years, and this world of humanity has only gotten worse, everyone," went Tso Lan to the other Demon Sorcerers in Po Kong's palace. "We must take matters into our own hands if we're take over."
"I must second that," Hsi Wu added, wearing a human disguise (A/N: The same one he had in Jackie Chan Adventures) so as to make himself scarce within Po Kong's domain. "All these humans have done over the decade-and-a-half is reduce their numbers by the millions, either through wars or spreading diseases that cut their lifespans down by decades. The worse is the reduction in landmasses. Of course, you don't have much of an issue with that, don't you, Bai Tza? You enjoy underwater domains."
"Unfortunately, an underwater domain is meaningless without servants," Bai Tza explained. "If the majority of this grand problem is what humans did to cripple their own world…then why don't we give them something to embrace?"
"You mean, restore their ruined world ourselves?" Dai Gui questioned. "Our enhanced powers can enable us to do so, but how do we know that these humans will not repeat their actions that ruined it fifteen years ago?"
"Tchang Zu," went Xiao Fung to the Thunder Demon Sorcerer, "you've been around these humans over the years, haven't you? What have you been able to ascertain?"
"Being forced to rely on these humans called hackers," Tchang Zu revealed, "a group of humans in the South Pole discovered a being referred to as the First Angel, and, through their arrogance and inability to accept their place as being a part of the food chain, caused it to explode, resulting in the ecological instability that was called Second Impact. Another group of humans referred to as SEELE hid the truth from the majority of the world under the false story of a meteorite hitting the South Pole and melting the icecaps and flooding the coastal areas."
"SEELE," Tso Lan expressed, "believed to have their fingers in everything associated with this world. How pathetic."
"The place I found Lilith in was called NERV," Bai Tza explained, "probably a subgroup of theirs to do their dirty work."
"Then this First Angel had to have been Adam," Po Kong suspected. "They forced him to self-destruct and destroy their own world…and they lack any means to restore it. More land, more humans equals more slaves when we make our move."
"When shall we act upon our own interests to claim this world as our own?" Hsi Wu questioned.
"The time to act," went Xiao Fung, "is now."
-x-
Shinji was unamused by NERV's latest attempt to find him now. Bad enough they wanted to bring him back to the Geo-Front, but now they were trying to pressure the people that didn't live in Tokyo-3 to find him and hand him over to them under the threat of being arrested for bogus charges of aiding him. It had already been two hours since he last used the Sheep Talisman, with his body probably rested enough to make another sprint towards freedom if he had to, but he didn't want to run unless he absolutely had to.
"…Okay, I understand that your agency is looking for this kid," he saw a woman on the news say to Dr. Akagi as they were live on television, "but what exactly did he do? Why is running from you? Did he murder someone?"
"He abandoned NERV during an attack made on us by an unknown creature," the faux-blond explained the cover story to why they were asking the public to help find him. "We believe he's waiting for the trains to resume operations so that he can leave the city, but we're asking the people to find him and prevent him from doing so. His father is putting out every resource available to apprehend his son and bring him back."
"But, ma'am…what if Shinji Ikari doesn't want to come back to NERV?" The woman asked on TV. "What if he feels he's not obligated to work with or for NERV? Doesn't he have the choice to refuse, to say 'no' to his father and everyone else?"
How are you going to respond to that? Shinji wondered.
"Unfortunately, no," Dr. Akagi answered, "he doesn't have a choice. In the event of any attack on the city, he is obligated to aid NERV, even if it's against his will."
Shinji frowned and couldn't believe such a response came from her.
"You may find yourselves unable to receive much help from the public in that regard," the woman told her. "NERV has been the subject target of some rather unpleasant rumors, particularly those of the schooling system."
"In what way?"
"With the way Second Impact affected the world, the natural birthrate has dropped significantly over the following years. Some say that organizations like NERV, due to the majority of its employees having children, have taken away the civil liberties of children and resigned them to an undesired future as expendable soldiers for war."
Oh, this just keeps getting worse and worse! Shinji realized. This isn't getting any better!
Shinji then saw that Ritsuko hadn't made a response to that accusation. In fact, the woman looked like she couldn't make a comeback at all. Then he saw a police cruiser fly past the electronics shop where the television was broadcasting the news, and decided that he needed to move on.
-x-
…I can't believe she said that, thought Ritsuko as she walked out of the building into the parking garage. Our very future as a species is at stake, and people complain about how organizations like NERV target children as expendable soldiers. In order to save the human race, NERV needs pilots for the Evas, no matter what laws are ignored in the process.
Ring-ring! Her cell phone rang, and she answered it.
"Akagi speaking," she uttered.
"It's Ibuki," went her protégée on the other end. "The riot has commenced."
-x-
The people that wanted to leave Tokyo-3 were enraged and expressing their desire to see the trains and buses running. How they did so was a surprise to Shinji as he moved along the alleyways. They were turning parked cars over and breaking windows.
"Jeez, and they want to leave the city as much as I do," he muttered as he hid behind a dumpster. "I gotta get outta here."
He ran again, looking for a place to hide, trying to avoid anyone that might've been looking for him to take him back to NERV. It would only be a few more hours until they did resume the public transportation services. He could already imagine getting on the first train he saw and leaving this terrible place. To return to the peace and quiet streets of Ōta and the people he at least knew there.
-x-
The South Pole wasn't much of a frozen wasteland these days, reduced to just pillars of salt in a watery environment unsuitable for any habitation. This was where the Demon Sorcerers were at this moment, selecting the precise location to begin their move.
"Here," went Tso Lan, "where the moon is at its zenith."
The others were floating towards where he levitated and generated spheres of red energy.
"These humans will serve us if they wish to see a future," Po Kong uttered.
"Or die like their ancestors over the generations," added Hsi Wu as the aurora borealis faded from perception.
"Waters, rise and become ice," Bai Tza commanded, and the oceans around them began churning as they exploded upwards into the air around them.
FLASH! They froze and shattered to become like snow.
"Winds, calm," Xiao Fung commanded, causing the air around them to be calm and allow the frozen water to do as Bai Tza desired.
"Earth, revitalize and become bountiful," commanded Dai Gui, willing the grounds that had been covered by water for years to dry up and be like fertile soil to grow crops and flowers (much to his disgust).
"And the moon shall move further away," Tso Lan uttered, and the moon did as he willed; this way, the ocean tides were less likely affect the landmasses.
"We are eternal," Tchang Zu uttered.
"We are unstoppable," added Po Kong added.
"We…are invincible," Hsi Wu finished.
Tso Lan guesstimated that it would be an hour before they were done, but due to the power of the Angels they had absorbed into themselves boosting their abilities, they could stand to be in the presence of one another for sixty minutes.
"We might as be considered the new gods of this world," Po Kong joked.
"Yes," Bai Tza agreed with her. "We are gods now."
-x-
The ground shook as people on the streets stopped rioting. It didn't feel like an earthquake or some sort of natural disaster. No, it felt like…like the world was under attacked by the heavens themselves.
Shinji, once he found another abandoned building to hide in, saw that his talisman was flashing brightly like a beacon of sorts, like something was wrong.
"What's going on here?" He wondered aloud, hoping that nobody would come here looking for him. "It's never done this before."
-x-
"What's happening?" Gendo demanded as he entered the command center in Central Dogma. "What's going on?"
"We're getting reports from other NERV bases around the world saying that the epicenter originated in the South Pole," Fuyutsuki explained. "Something big happened there that affected the entire planet."
"How is the planet affected?"
"The ocean levels have dropped drastically," Hyuga informed. "New bodies of ice have been detected in the South Pole. The global ocean levels are almost pre-Second Impact."
"In addition, the planet, originally thrown off its axis because of Second Impact," went Shigeru, "has seemingly corrected itself to its original axis."
"But what in the South Pole could've caused this?" Maya questioned.
Gendo was also curious as to what was causing these phenomena to occur. There was no way any human organization on the planet was responsible; there was no technology in development that could affect the whole planet. He was hearing reports of the moon's gravitational influence on Earth decreasing, as though the moon itself were moving further from it. And it couldn't be the Angels, either; they were supposed to eradicate all human beings on the planet, not undo the damages created by human arrogance. Something was amiss, and the fact that he didn't know who or what was behind it didn't please him.
Ring-ring! The phone rang under the alarms, and Fuyutsuki picked up.
"Fuyutsuki speaking," he uttered, and sighed. "I'll tell him."
He hung up and looked at Gendo.
"That was Katsuragi," he explained. "The rioters won and the trains and buses are running now. Section Two is watching the stations and bus stops in case your son tries to leave."
Gendo nodded in acceptance. Even if the transportation routes were reopening, he couldn't risk losing his son until the Angels were dealt with. The sooner they arrived and his son was made to see that they needed him to pilot the Eva, the sooner his own plans could be put into motion. But first, they needed to find him and bring him back here.
-x-
As he had hid his body under an old desk and projected his astral form once more, Shinji explored the city from the air, looking for clues. What he found happening instead of hearing for an explanation to what had shook the city was better than he could've hoped.
"I'm glad to finally be leaving this place!" He heard a woman yell as she bought herself a train ticket. "Tokyo-3 is the worst city ever!"
This discovery of the trains finally running ahead of schedule excited Shinji as he quickly returned to his body and quickly fled the warehouse.
"I'm getting out of here!" He grunted as he ran as fast as his legs could take him to the nearest train stop. "Sayōnara, Tokyo-3!"
He saw one train stop and no lines of people to get a ticket. Fortunately, his ticket from Ōta to Tokyo-2 had a return slot, making it applicable for a round trip for him. Unfortunately, he saw two black suits nearby, along with a woman with purple hair.
HONK! He heard the sound of a train approaching, and knew he couldn't let these people stand in his way.
I will not be kept here against my will! He told himself and ran across the street.
"That's him!" He heard one of the suits say as he pointed towards him. "Shinji Ikari, stop!"
He went into the building and punched his ticket for his return trip. All he had to do was get on a train and he was home free.
Click! He heard the sound of a gun behind him.
Turning around, he saw Misato aiming a gun at him.
"Stop running, Shinji," she ordered him. "We need you here!"
"You need me here?" He questioned. "Well, I don't wanna be here! I never wanted to be here! If you're gonna kill me, then do it! I will not go back to NERV, no matter what that man says! You're all crazy if you think I will just accept this as my fate!"
"It's everyone's fate if you don't come with me!"
"Wrong! It's just what you want to believe! If your fate hinges on me doing something I don't want to do, that you already have people willing to do for you, well, then the Hell with fate."
"What?"
"You heard me, lady. The Hell with fate. Fuck fate!"
A train came to a stop behind Shinji as the doors opened. With his hands tightened over his bag, the young teen stepped backwards onto the train.
"Don't make me shoot you! Get off the train!" Misato told him.
"Shoot me, then! Shoot! Blow my head off! Do it!"
The doors closed and the train started moving again.
"Damn it, Shinji!" Misato yelled at the boy, but he was already gone.
On the train, sitting down in the empty car, Shinji sighed. A small smile on his face as he realized this was an express train, meaning that it only made two or three more stops within Tokyo-3 before leaving the city. There was only one other stop after the one he just left…and then it was smooth sailing between here and Tokyo-2 where he could catch another train to take him to Ōta. And for the first time in what felt like a long time since he arrived in Tokyo-3, he finally felt like he could breathe again. He had gotten away from his father and NERV, untouchable from the likes of them.
"I don't ever wanna come back here for as long as I may live," he told himself, wondering what might've happened if Misato had gone and shot him before he got on the train. Of course, if she had, I'd still be free. Because I'm not bound to their fates. I'm not bound to anyone's fate.
To be continued…
A/N: Damn, this was the longest chapter I've written for this story! But in the end, I had to see it through and enable Shinji to do the one thing most of the franchise wouldn't let him do: Get away from Tokyo-3, NERV and his father. Now, it's back to Ōta for him. What do you expect to happen next?