Creation began on 02-22-19
Creation ended on 02-22-19
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Infinity Redemption: Broken Bonds, Broken Hearts
A/N: Sometimes, children are able to see the world's imperfections better than the adults that try to ignore them…and sometimes are able to be more desiring than others without compassion.
It was always cold here, and had been that way since before we even got here. The people are colder, though, just like the man and woman that hated my Daddy. I could never understand why they hated him, and he never did anything wrong. If anything, the only wrong he ever did…was being with them.
Daddy, whom some people called Shinji, was always kind to me, always smiling, even when half his smiles were full of pain. Even when others looked at him with dislike or felt he was being foolish or just crazy, whatever any of that even means, Daddy never so much as raised his voice, except for when…it was decided that it was better if we were separated from each other.
"How could they just decide this for us?" Toya, the son of my Daddy's friend, Rumiko, questioned as he threw a fit over our shared predicament. "They didn't do anything wrong! They did everything they were supposed to do! My mother did everything she was supposed to do! Those other people and her mother, they put you up to this just to hurt them! They did, didn't they? You're wrong for listening to them!"
And as much as I agreed with him, the adults we were left with…were anything but understanding. Actually, they were nothing but monsters because one of the women in charge actually slapped Toya in his face just for talking back when she stated the rules of being in this orphanage with dozens of other kids.
"Once you accept that your parents were failures at raising you, things will get easier for you," she told us when we arrived, but I couldn't believe that.
And I still don't believe it. Every day, every second…and nearly every child like Toya and I are either bothered or ignored by the adults that are supposed to be watching us to make sure that we're safe…or we either turn on each other as we're consumed by their ugliness. Toya and I saw two girls gang up on another girl with a blue ribbon…and the adults did nothing.
Even as I hold on tightly to Ursa Guardian, I cling to the hope that Daddy will come for me one day and take me away from this awful place.
-x-
Shado and I are practically the same age, and yet I feel as though we're the only ones here that actually have people out there that want us while nearly everyone else is alone. That awful woman, my grandmother, and those people my mother's friend and Shado lived with… The only word that really resonates with them…is "hate". Hate because they hated our parents more than they hated us…and they never did anything wrong. It was everyone else around them that did everything wrong.
Abuse, lie, or even rob. Denial was their excuse, their shield against the truth. A truth my mother had all the time…was that she didn't wish to see me as anything else except as her son, not something she felt better off not knowing about. This was something her mother wouldn't relent in telling her every now and then since before I could remember…and even then, the lady wasn't much for smiling, even at me.
"Before I was old enough to realize it, Toya, I was being taken advantage of," my mother explained to me one day while we were at the park with Shinji and Shado. "I was completely ignorant of what was going. It was a family matter that went bad as soon as it started…and ended badly. My mother hated me for it. She hates me more because there was something she wanted to know about you that I didn't want to know at all. I hope I never have to find out, no matter what your grandmother thinks, but just know that, despite the awful things I've either done in the past or might do in the future, you're the one good thing I ever did right."
I didn't understand her back then as I do now. Anyone and everyone would say terrible things about my mother, but I still held on to the belief that she was a good person, that they were wrong. Maybe sometimes, and just sometimes, good people will do bad things, but only because they don't know any better. But all around us now, all I can see…is bad people who are willing to do bad things just because they can.
I know this to be true because I had to intervene when one of the people in charge of this terrible place tried to take Shado's Ursa Guardian teddy bear because they wanted her to "let go of her past", but she refused because it was all she had of her daddy.
"Stop being such a baby and hand over the bear!" The man had shouted to her as he tried to pull it from her. "You're trying to hold onto a hope that will never come true!"
"Let go!" Shado cried. "Ursa Guardian's mine and I won't let you take her from me!"
So I grabbed a small ball and threw it at the man's head, hurting him.
"Get away from her!" I yelled at him. "It's her bear! Her father gave it to her and it's all she has of him until he comes for her, and he will come for her!"
I honestly don't know what possessed me to say that, but I felt that in my heart, it was the truth. Ursa Guardian was her…guardian, and like any guardian, it kept an eye on Shado until her father came to get her and take her away from this wretched place.
That's when the man looked at me…and had me thrown in solitary confinement when Shado ran with Ursa Guardian and hid somewhere where the adults couldn't find her. They left me in there for nearly three days; the standard time limit for solitary confinement is just three hours. It is not the best way to put any child on time out, and this place treated all the kids like they were criminals when they try to take just an inch and are suspected of going a mile.
"Stupid boy," the guy in charge called me. "Thanks to you, we can't find the dumb bear because your friend hid it and she won't say where, and I'm not going to tear this place apart trying to find it. The both of you are trouble as it is, just like we were told you would be. No wonder nobody will ever want to take you two. I'll make sure of it."
It isn't like we care much for other people, anyway, but I didn't respond to his rude revelation. I only have one mother, and nobody could or would replace her. The same applied to Shado and her father; he was the only one for her and was irreplaceable.
-x-
With Ursa Guardian safely hidden away and the adults unwilling to do whatever it took to find her, I snuck to where Toya was locked up and sat beside the door in the empty hall.
"Toya?" I called out to him, hoping that he was awake.
"Yeah?" He responded.
"Thanks for sticking up for me."
"If I didn't, who would've?"
Nobody, I thought as I sighed. "We need to get out of here. I don't know how, but we need to get away from this place."
"I'm all for leaving, but what do we do afterward? Even if we went to our parents, they're probably still living with those adults that had us taken from them. They'll just do it all over again…and then we'll end up back here again."
"But maybe they're not there, anymore."
"We don't know that, Shado. It's been a year now, and, despite my efforts not to, I've forgotten my mother's face. I don't remember what she looks like."
I felt sadness for him forgetting Rumiko's face because they had been separated for so long. Fortunately for him, I hadn't forgotten her looks or my father's.
"She has long, dark brown hair," I told him. "She has gray eyes, a face stained by pain, but with a heart that makes up for it with her kindness. She looks like a mother that actually listens to her child, no matter what other people say. My Daddy's her best friend, the only one that calls him a friend without restriction, offering friendship without a price."
"And what does Shinji look like?"
"Like an older version of myself…but in more pain than words can say."
"We can't get out through the front gate; it's always locked, and that man with the purple ring on his right hand has the key all the time."
"We'll find a way. I just want our parents back. I don't care where we end up, so long as it's with them and away from this place."
"Even if we wound up in a faraway place, and I mean really, really far away?"
"I'd rather be with them there than to spend another week here."
"You and me both, Shado."
"What do you think they're doing right now?"
"You mean our parents? Best guess is my mother is sleeping in a small space while holding onto one of my stuffed animals…while your father is thinking about you in the silence of the night."
"Thanks, Toya."
To be continued…
A/N: And with that, I shall pause on the story until much later, but don't worry, this will be back in due time. There's a hint of something located in this chapter if you know where to look. See you later.
