Timeline #7: Gendo Ikari's Gratuitously Grave Error
NERV HQ, moments following the ill-fated activation test of Evangelion Unit-00...
*Ding!*
"Rei! I've got to get down there...Wait a damn minute-why the hell am I willing to risk my life or waste time waiting for this Rei to recover, when I can just activate another one of her clones?"
Once the recovery team extracted her near-dead body from the entry plug following the disastrous activation test of Evangelion Unit-00, Gendo Ikari discreetly allowed the second Rei Ayanami to die of her injuries in NERV's medical wing. From there, he activated the third Rei clone, who went on to pilot Evangelion Unit-01 and successfully kill Sachiel the Third Angel.
Due to this rather grim twist of fate, Gendo never bothered to contact his son, Shinji, who eventually gave up on waiting to hear from his father at all and went on with his life rather unremarkably. By the time Shinji had found out that his coldhearted schemer of a father had somehow been stomped flat by giant robot piloted by an angry albino girl, Shinji couldn't have cared less about the news and only briefly spared a thought to wonder one thing:
What in the hell had his father been up to involving giant robots anyway, and why?
To the next timeline...