CHAPTER THREE_WOVEN WITH GOOD INTENTIONS (AND COVERED IN SLIME JUICE)

The world was all noise and white for Shinji. Evangelion Unit One's auditory and visual safeguards kicked into action nearly instantaneously, protecting Shinji from sensory overload. He was glad someone thought of this kind of thing during the development of the Evangelions. Sight and hearing were pretty important to him. The noise lasted possibly a dozen seconds, but the assault felt as long as his stay in the Twelfth Angel's bewildering and infuriating sensory deprivation abyss. This was the opposite of that nightmare. Shinji had also reflexively closed his eyes and plugged his ears when the world changed.

When the noise (or more likely just the sound imprinted in his brain) finally subsided Shinji, slowly lifted his hands from his ears and peeked carefully from the left eye, and then his right. The world seemed to have returned to normal. Safely ensconced inside the Evangelion, Shinji had always felt a little disconnected from the outside when battles against Angels were fought, despite the transmission of sensory information through the A-10 system.

He surveyed the landscape around him. What had been a lush grassy plain dotted with groves of trees had been torn up by the Great Big Slime's demise. The explosion had hurled away all the grass around him for hundreds of metres, and entire groves of trees were flattened much, much further still. What vegetation was left was blackened and singed. The landscape looked like an N2 mine had gone off right on top of him.

No. No-no-no-no-no-NO! Not again!

A shiver snaked its way down Shinji's spine, and he found it hard to breath. In previous battles, there was always collateral damage. How could there not be? The Angels were fearsome combatants. They were armed with particle beam accelerators, thick bony armour, Lovecraftian visages, mystical strength, electric whips, and the single-minded determination to destroy whatever was in his path. They exploded with the force of a thousand suns (or one of Asuka's tirades). The battles against them had been fought when Tokyo-3 was as best prepared as possible, with skyscrapers retracted, other buildings hardened, civilians evacuated to special shelters and repair and recovery crews who would spring into action as soon as the day was won.

There was none of that here. Buildings were made of stone at best, and wood at worst. Shinji had Unit One turn around and sprinted back to Summerise as quickly as the Evangelion could run.

What he saw horrified him. There was an even larger hole in the wall surrounding Summerise, shattered stone lay everywhere on the ground. Some shards had even been embedded into the ground. More buildings had been flattened. Some of the ones that had been standing closer to the original had simply been blown away by the shockwave of what must have been a gargantuan explosion, while all that was left of other buildings was their exposed foundations.

Worse still, there were people just strewn all over the ground, soldiers and civilians alike. Some were in shapes he never imagined people should be in. He was too far up to see their condition, but it was a small relief to see others tending to them, checking them for injury, giving them water and offering care. Shinji was glad that this number of civilian casualties had never happened against an Angel, but he was still aghast at the sheer destructive power of the explosion.

Shinji slowed down as he closed in on Summerise. Thankfully, the castle didn't seem to have taken much, if any, damage from the battle. Most of the fighting had been confined to the town walls and the surrounding plains. Those who could clear out of the way as Unit One approached did, and Shinji gingerly stepped around the rest.

Evangelion Unit One finally came to a rest inside the walls of Summerise. It knelt on one knee, leaned forward with both hands on the ground and then commenced shut down.

[Shinji, good work today!]

"B-but look at all the people who got hurt, Mother!"

[There was nothing you could have done about that, son. We had to kill some big monsters, and you did your best. I know you did.]

"I…alright. I'll see you later, Mother."

With that Unit One completed shutting down and the entry plug partially ejected. With the hatch open, Shinji stepped out of the plug. He gagged as he took in a deep breath of what should have been fresh air, trying to clean out the LCL from his lungs. What he didn't realise was that after being embedded deep in the Great Big Slime, some of its juices and gelatinous traces still lingered on his Evangelion's armour. He could taste the stench, and if he weren't in a fantasy land, he'd have blamed Misato's cooking for the smell. Typically, stepping on and in Angel bits would not be a problem as he would alight on to a gantry and any viscera would be washed off by NERV. Not here though. One second, he had one foot solidly on Unit One's back and the next moment, he was wondering why the ground was suddenly rushing to meet him.

Shinji never got to finish that train of thought.

/

Shinji woke with a start and sat up; his last memory was that he was about to hit the ground hard. Which, he most obviously had done. But it was dark again so he couldn't tell whether it was night, or he was back in the dungeon again. Whether he was in a dungeon or not, he realised that the clinking sound accompanying his movements came from some metal cuffs that restrained him to the bed on which he lay.

He sighed. Why did this always happen? He was only trying to help. Why didn't anybody ever thank him instead of weighing him down? We wondered what punishment these people would mete out, considering he probably killed and maimed a lot of their people by accident. This wasn't Tokyo-3; Misato wasn't there to protect him from anybody. His father (as much as Shinji could believe his father even cared about his existence) wasn't there to give orders to his underlings or glower cryptically at them from up high.

Shinji felt around the metal cuffs that his captors had put on his wrists. They were solid enough, and the chains were also made of metal, judging by the clinking sounds they made when he shook them a bit. There was nothing to do in the darkness. He very much wished his S-DAT was with him. He sighed again and resigned himself to whatever fate was going to deal out him.

He dozed off again in the gloom of wherever he was so that he would not have to deal with the gloom in his heart and soul.

It was an indeterminant length of time later when Shinji awakened without a start. He had had a strange dream but could not remember anything about it. It had something to do with the thing and that guy and…

He shook the sleep from his head and looked around again. A little sunlight leaked in from behind the gaps in some curtains. This was indeed a different place to where he had been kept before.

At least this isn't a dungeon.

That it wasn't a dungeon was a small comfort. But this was yet another unfamiliar ceiling. Shinji was definitely waking up to more of those lately. He thought this was an ill omen. What further hurt and pain could come his way? He had caused a lot of bother in Summerise. Was it this universe's way to condemn him? Or was it simply finding amusement through his misfortunes? He'd hurt or killed numerous people by somehow setting off a huge explosion in close proximity to the place and levelled buildings and the surrounding landscape. He'd inadvertently destroyed the town's walls twice and left it vulnerable.

What would the people of Summerise do once they found out about him? The last time he accidentally hurt someone, it cost him a punch to the face during school, and a second one for not taking responsibility. Would…would taking responsibility here make it better?

"What are you, stupid or something?!" Asuka Langley Soryu would have demanded. Even in times like this, Shinji found comfort in familiarity, even if it was only imaginary. "Is that what all Japanese people do? Apologise a lot and then take responsibility even if it's not your fault? Or is that just you?"

I'm…scared of these people, Asuka. I'm afraid of what will happen to me.

Shinji returned to his present circumstances as he heard heavy footsteps approaching. He figured that whatever was going to happen, would happen. He was powerless to stop it. Evangelion Unit One was powered down, probably for good right now.

The door to the room opened and a little more light filtered in, specks of dust floated idly in the air. He could see that the room was neat but basic. He was lying on a bed, there were some chairs and a desk with some drawers next to the windows, both made of the same drab wood as each other. Knight-Commander Marcus Bastion walked in imperiously, still dressed in his armour and carrying his sword. Shinji thought the man looked tired, and imagined that he was very angry. Probably, Shinji mused, the Knight-Commander had every right to be.

Behind Bastion came a skinny man with a pepper grey moustache that twirled up at the sides, pushing a cart and trailing him came two columns of the identikit soldiers Shinji had come across when he first awoke in Summerise's dungeons. They glowered at Shinji as they entered the room. And Shinji could see it, feel the scorching disdain from their eyes. And he could see all of this because unlike his father, none of these soldiers hid behind orange glasses. There was something proud and noble about that.

The skinny man with the cart stopped in the middle of the room while some of the soldiers opened the curtains with a flurry. This led to Shinji squinting from the sudden influx of sunlight. Undeterred, Skinny Cart Man unfolded the cart into a table so smoothly, quietly, and professionally he was born into the role. Through half squinty eyes, Shinji saw the man bend down and pull a plate of food out of some compartment in the cart-now-table and set it down on top. Skinny Cart Man then haughtily wiped his hands on a pure white towel and then flicked it on to his left shoulder as if that signalled his performance was now over. Finally, he walked out gracefully, towel comfortably resting on the left shoulder, emitting nary a sound. Soon it was if the food and the table had always been there in that room.

Bastion had, in the meantime, walked to and began was looking out the window at whatever was outside. So engrossed in watching the Skinny Cart Man ply his craft that Shinji was only now aware of the noise and hubbub from outside. There was hammering. There was yelling. There were even horses arguing with each other.

Bastion turned and nodded at his men. Two of them came to Shinji and unshackled him from the bed. They then directed him to sit down in front of the food and placed a fork on the plate. There was an unspoken message from the way the soldiers looked at him coolly that Shinji should eat quickly and quietly. This must be a last meal kind of thing here. I would have picked lobster thermidor or something exotic like kangaroo.

Under the watchful gazes of Bastion and his men, Shinji dug into the food presented to him. He wasn't as hungry as the previous meal he'd had, so he was trying to make the most out of it. The meal didn't have anything like the complexity of flavour and varying textures to excite the taste buds that he normally mustered in Misato's kitchen, but there was something to the rugged simplicity of the food that allowed him to appreciate the meal better.

Bastion set a chair opposite to Shinji and sat down. The Knight-Commander seemed tired. Must be tired of me constantly causing damage.

"What are your intentions?" asked Bastion flatly while Shinji was chewing on a particularly tough piece of meat.

"I-I…really don't know," answered Shinji after a few seconds of thought and some more chewing. "I-I thought…I…thought…"

"What were you thinking?" Bastion asked Shinji quietly, who had started to cry.

"That-that you were going to kill me or something like that. I mean, I damaged the walls twice, and then-then I blew up buildings and probably killed a bunch of people…" blubbered Shinji between chews. That was what he wanted to express, but it should be noted it sounded far less coherent than that in reality.

"Why would we do that? You saved us all!" proclaimed Bastion. "If you hadn't done whatever you did to the slime, we wouldn't be having this conversation. Well, you might have lived to fight another day, but my men and I would almost certainly be dead."

"Wh-what? But what about all the damage I caused? And the people who got hurt in the explosion?" blurted out Shinji, sounding guilty for all the world to hear.

Bastion crossed his arms and thought about it. "What I know as the leader of our military is that if you hadn't stopped the attack, then Summerise would have been levelled. Yes, there was some damage, and yes some people were hurt. That pales in comparison to what would have happened otherwise. Win or lose, I have never ever been in a clean fight in war, Shinji."

Shinji shrank in his seat a little further from the acknowledgement that damage and pain had been caused by him. There must have been some way to win the battle without making the plight of Summerise worse. Could he have baited the Great Big Slime and led it further from the town? Would enough knife cuts have done the trick?

"I'm not an expert in the other stuff. I came here to tell you that you will be required at court. But," Bastion put his hand up to stop Shinji from interrupting. "But, I will personally be your defendant if anyone dares question your actions."

"Wh-Why would you do that for me after all the trouble I caused?" enquired Shinji. He wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. After all, everyone had used him before. Misato, his father, Ritsuko, and even Asuka. Used him and then left him to his own devices, which was both a blessing and a curse.

"Honestly? I said this already before. It's because you saved us, Shinji," answered Bastion seriously. "Did you take my quiet, brooding face to mean I was unhappy with you?"

Shinji nodded, not willing to look anyone else in the eye. He was afraid more than anything that the Knight-Commander was toying with him. He didn't want to know the truth. It was better to be ignorant and just leave it. After all, Shinji Ikari's fate had never been determined by Shinji Ikari.

"Hah! You must think the worst of people Shinji," laughed Bastion. He had a good loud laugh, that was genuine and came from his stomach. "Or…maybe you don't think much of yourself? Either way, we'll see what we can do about that attitude here."

Marcus Bastion, Knight-Commander of Summerise, looked at Shinji and smiled. "Now, eat up. We must get you ready for your day in court."

Shinji could only hope this ordeal wouldn't be the end of him.

/

Shinji had forgotten what life would be like without modern conveniences like escalators and lifts. He was so used to the technological marvels of the twenty-first century that he'd taken it for granted. Shinji was not someone prone to bouts of hiking or fits strenuous exercise. He'd never been forced to climb a million flights of stairs as he'd done just to get up into the castle proper. Summerise was built on a small and flat island surrounded by the sea. Despite this natural moat, it was still surrounded by high walls, and it was joined to the sprawling beachside town surrounding it by a large arch bridge. Another outer wall protected the township, or it would have done had Shinji not smashed ever larger holes in it. From his vantage point, Shinji could see Unit One and scaffolding surrounding the wall, little ant-sized people scurrying about in the process of rebuilding what had been destroyed.

No matter what else might have been happening, the view from where he was standing was the definition of superb. It almost made the climb worth it. Shinji was stood on the most spectacular balcony he'd ever seen, if it could even be called a balcony. It was an open courtyard near the top of the castle with blossoming flowers and vines creeping over the carved stone balustrades, the walls and even the ceiling. Flags depicting a mighty dragon roaring fire on a green background rippled proudly in concert in the wind. Large gulls floated in the breeze seeking food. Summerise's castle stood tall and proud over the landscape. There were rolling green plains, lush forests swaying in the breeze, far away snow-capped mountains as far as the eye could see and the sea glittered with every crest of a wave. There was also a big brown crater pocked with scorch marks where he and Unit One had caused the Great Big Slime to combust so vigorously and spectacularly. There were even little craters outside the centrepiece of Shinji's folly, probably from burning slime juices landing there.

The interior of the castle was also spectacular. The turrets and walls were built from grey stone, but whether by age or by elbow grease, each stone was polished and shone in the daylight. Hanging on the walls were giant portraits of previous monarchs, Knight and Templar-Commanders framed with golden wood. Each portrait exuded an air of confidence and authority. Shinji was struck by how a painting could portray such an aura.

Shinji wanted to admire the view some more, but of course, he wasn't alone. Besides Knight-Commander Bastion and his retinue of stoned-faced clone soldiers, there was also a group who followed Templar-Commander Redwood. Unlike the stone-faced soldiers who followed Bastion, the Templars who gathered around Redwood seemed to be capable of individual thoughts and expressions. No doubt, they were gossiping quietly about the useless boy who wrecked their home.

There was also a smattering of seemingly random people, though by the way they murmured to each other and how their brightly coloured clothes barely hid their paunchier frames, Shinji wondered idly if they were the richer inhabitants of Summerise. It probably doesn't matter. I won't be here long enough to matter.

There seemed to be no end to the milling around the people of Summerise could do. Shinji felt like he'd been standing around in the courtyard for hours, when suddenly a loud fanfare of trumpets blared throughout the castle. Shinji had no clue where the music came from. Nobody he could see was playing anything.

Even more mysteriously, a baritone voice – whose owner Shinji imagined must have the most luxurious of moustaches – emerged from nowhere began to pronounce: "Ladies and gentlemen, announcing the presence of Her Grace, Queen Annabella Laurel Greendrake, Protector of the Realm of Summerise, Lady of the Pentagon Sea and Duchess of the Protectorate of Baz. All who are present shall bask in her magnificence!"

Everyone around Shinji bowed (or curtsied in the case of the ladies). Meanwhile, he stared in awe at said Queen Greendrake as she alone sauntered into the courtyard, examining and judging her subjects as she strolled past with her benevolent smile. Greendrake was captivating. Long lustrous dark hair was tied into a perfect complex of braids and accentuated by her tiara bejewelled with emeralds. Her red and yellow dress loudly reminded him when he first laid eyes on Asuka's flaming red hair and simple yellow dress fluttering wildly in the ocean breeze in tune with his chest on that aircraft carrier. It felt to Shinji that it was a lifetime ago.

Shinji felt a sharp jab in his ribs from Bastion and realised then that he had just been staring at the queen as she made her grandiose entrance. Bastion tipped his head, indicating to Shinji that he should be bowing, not gawking. So, he bowed as well. He hoped Greendrake hadn't noticed him staring; he was rather hoping for a good and fair hearing.

Queen Greendrake ended her authoritative stroll past those gathered and sat down on her fancy gilded throne, resting her head on her left hand, with her right leg crossed over her left.

"Today's court session is in session!" proclaimed the invisible moustachioed man from his hidey hole somewhere in the castle.

Everybody stopped bowing or curtsying, and one man, who was admittedly very smartly dressed, presented a scroll to the queen, who had since changed her expression to that of haughty disinterest as she read it. Greendrake handed the scroll back to The Smartly Dressed Man. He himself opened the scroll and declared: "First order of business today. The hearing of one Shinji Ikari of the faraway land of Japan!"

Immediately, those present snapped their attention to Shinji, who wilted under their gaze. He couldn't help but stare at his feet.

Greendrake used her fingers to beckon Shinji and Bastion closer to her. "You may approach, Shinji Ikari of Japan, and Knight-Commander Marcus Bastion."

Shinji could not help but fixate on his shoes as he followed Bastion, who was dressed in the shiniest, most polished plate mail ever, to the designated spot on the courtyard floor. He could feel the judgement oozing from the eyes of those gathered.

"Shinji Ikari, of Japan," said The Smartly Dressed Man in a dignified manner. "You are accused of causing grievous damage to the realm of Summerise. It matters not whether it was through malice or incompetence or any other factor. Her Grace has been informed, and approved, the Knight-Commander's representation of you, should you require it."

Shinji lowered his head even further at the mention of the word incompetence. This was after all, the reason he was in this mess. If he hadn't risen to Asuka's barbs, he'd still be in Tokyo-3 and the weird ball-shadow Angel would have been defeated by teamwork and another one of Misato's seemingly insane schemes.

"What say you in your defence?" asked The Smartly Dressed Man.

Shinji kept his eyes down. It was not just his Japanese nature that bid him to do it. He was far too ashamed to look up and stare at his accuser. Despite this, the courtyard waited with bated breath on his response. "I…I'm very sorry to have caused you trouble. I-I was only trying to help. I tried everything, and nothing worked until I made it explode. I'm…really sorry."

Shinji paused. He had been trying to help. He had stopped the massive trolls. He disrupted the orc horde. It was the Great Big Slime that nearly bested him and Summerise. Was it really that bad? Bastion didn't seem fazed by it. He remembered a conversation between himself and Misato in the aftermath of the Fourth Angel when he was in NERV's brig. I beat the Angel, didn't I? What does it matter how it happened? Her affirmation of his life having value moved him to stay with her, even if piloting the Evangelion brought pain had surprised him at the time, but now he understood it better.

"Is that all you have to offer?" asked Queen Greendrake sharply. She did not look impressed. "An apology and a vague excuse? I thought that someone who could control such an impressive war machine would have a spine. Disappointing."

"If I may, Your Grace," interjected Bastion. He stepped towards the gathered crowd. "I believe that is an inaccurate and unfair assessment of Shinji Ikari's actions. It was clear that when he arrived that he was unconscious owing to him being in battle. He also fought bravely to blunt the attacking horde, letting my men and the Template-Commander's mages defend Summerise with minimal casualties. He even stopped that giant slime."

"But he caused massive damage to our wall!" cried a random person in the court.

"And my tavern was also destroyed!" shouted another. A chorus of assent rang through the crowd. Obviously, the tavern was a popular one among the people.

"My mule was frightened! She ran like mad before we calmed her down. Then she slept in the next day and refused to pull her usual load!" That supplementary information netted a muted grumble, though it was unclear whether it was support or simple acknowledgement.

"I sympathise! I sympathise!" shouted Bastion to the crowd. He held his arms out to calm the gathering. "But I ask you. If the slime had not been stopped, would our illustrious queen be holding court today as she does every day? It's easy to point fingers when none of you lifted a finger, except when it came time to complain."

The crowd was less happy with the rebuke from Bastion. But they're right, Knight-Commander. I caused the problems.

"I was there, on the field when Shinji Ikari volunteered to help us. I want to emphasise that he volunteered to fight for us. I didn't ask him. He could easily have left, now that know the power of his war machine."

Bastion paced around the courtyard, hands behind his back, looking at the hecklers in the crowd. Eyeing them. Challenging them. Showing them their cowardice and his bravery.

"None of you were there." He pointed at someone. "You. You were hiding in your mansion's cellar. You, Madame Tasel. I saw you and your dogs being hauled away by your horses at a gallop before the fighting began. And you sir with the mule? Honestly, that mule could have done with a day off anyway. Regardless, Shinji fought for us. We're strangers to him. Yes, there was damage. But if he hadn't stopped the slime by whatever means necessary, we would all be dead."

Bastion let his last statement hang in the air for a few moments. "Your Grace. Shinji Ikari is just a child. He helped us stop not one, but two catastrophic invasions of Summerise. You can't punish him for his good deeds. He must be set free!"

There was a second or so before the shouting began. Evidently, Bastion's passionate defence of Shinji was not popular amongst those who were gathered. The Smartly Dressed Man yelled for silence. "Order! Order! We will have order in her Grace's presence!"

Queen Greendrake also bade the crowd be silent. It took a while for the hubbub to die down. Then she spoke sternly.

"Knight-Commander Bastion, you have presented a passionate, robust, and above all, reasoned defence of our guest. I will allow him to be free, on one condition. I want him to make amends for the collateral damage he caused. You and he have one week to give me a plan of action. Otherwise, I will throw him in the dungeon again and throw the key to his cell down the deepest darkest well in the kingdom!"

Bastion nodded his acceptance. "Your Grace's judgement is fair and wise. Shinji Ikari and I will seek a private audience with you within the week to present our proposal."

And with that, the court hearing for one Shinji Ikari, was concluded. Bastion and some guards led Shinji away while in the background, they could hear The Smartly Dressed Man's ever diminishing voice call out: "Second order of business. Complaints from the Labourer's Guild on the inadequate volume of town bells!"

/

"Mr Bastion, thank you, for what you did for me today," Shinji said as they walked out of the castle. He finally relaxed as he'd done so as he was wondering if Queen Greendrake might change her mind part of the way down. But the guilt was still keeping his head down because he could not bear to look up and catch anybody's eyes.

"I genuinely think you did a good thing Shinji. You saved us from certain death. Twice! Granted, the first time was a complete accident, but you saved us. Thank you, truly."

Shinji could tell that Bastion's gratitude was genuine. He would be forever grateful that he had received praise despite the imperfect result. And he was still incredibly unsure of what to do next. He was afraid he would do even worse things here. And they were walking right back into the barracks where he'd originally emerged into the sunlight for the first time. He had to go away. He had to go somewhere, not here and just think.

"Mr…Mr Bastion, is it alright if I take a walk? I think I need to clear my head."

Bastion did not even hesitate. "Sure Shinji, just make sure you're back for dinner."

Shinji bade Knight-Commander Marcus Bastion goodbye. The Knight-Commander continued to the barracks, whereas Shinji himself walked around Summerise. He surveyed the destruction he caused and walked through the damaged parts of town. Then, without a word, he walked out the front gates of Summerise into the wider world, silent and anonymous, just like anyone else in the town.

Author's notes:

Hi everyone, Author here. Thanks so much for all of you who read and follow the story. I really appreciate the support and makes me look forward to writing some more. In the meantime, please don't be shy with reviews, positive or otherwise.

In the next exciting chapter of Wonderful Mope:

Shinji eats! Shinji wakes up! And Shinji sits down to eat some more!