Creation began on 10-18-22

Creation ended on 07-17-24

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Different from You: Severing of Bonds

A/N: Overdue and in need of a small hint of how many impossible things are more than possible.

The Bodega Bay Inn was quiet for the last three days since the men in black suits showed up looking for Shinji. It made being able to walk around like before easier for the teen parents and their ability to work around the hotel to keep it maintained. But sometimes, Shinji found it difficult to refrain from saying something about something that was on his mind ever since he and Rumiko learned about Toulon, the puppets and the mantle of Puppet Master.

"You seemed bothered by something on your mind, Shinji," he hears Toulon say behind him, and he turns around in the hall to see the elderly man who was the original Puppet Master, accompanied by Leech Woman. "What is wrong?"

"I, uh… Rumiko only brought this up once, but we still don't know the full details of what happened in the past before Second Impact…so I feel I should ask… What did happen to Robert Winsley? You mentioned that he knows about the puppets, meaning that he also knows about all of you and Myers-Sama…but you haven't explained yet about what became of him or this Jane Magrew lady. It was mentioned that you met them…but they were with a man Rumiko considered to be unworthy of the mantle of Puppet Master."

Toulon sighs in understanding; Shinji, unlike Rumiko, was more sensitive to the knowledge of what happened to some of the people that were stained by the negativity associated with the secrets of the puppets and the Puppet Masters. While both teens were in understanding of the fact that there were two types of Puppet Masters, those of the good and those of the bad, making the puppets susceptible to the will of whoever the Puppet Master was at the time, but Toulon preferred it when the puppets were used for benevolence rather than malevolence, and there was no shame in divulging the rest of the story that deserves to be shared as a forewarning to the younger generation so that they would know better than to treat life as though it were cheap when it was precious.

"Yes, you should know," he tells Shinji. "Robert Winsley once worked for Dr. Magrew, the father of Jane Magrew. Doctor Magrew was among the most unworthy of the Puppet Master mantle because of the vile nature of his work. He wasn't even actual doctor, but he sought to pervert the methods that were used to give my friends their lives…and in the end, he turned Mr. Winsley into a puppet against his will…and was almost killed because of it all. I say 'almost' because at the last moment, before the puppet Mr. Winsley had become, Tank, could take his vengeance upon Magrew, a stranger had appeared and stopped him. This same stranger had thrice visited me in my past, always knowing more than I realized he was capable of knowing…but always with benevolent intentions in mind. Anyway, he undid the wrongs Magrew had committed, restored Winsley back to his previous state…and took Magrew with him to punish him for his crimes against the people he harmed. He let Magrew's daughter go because she was innocent of any wrongdoing her father had done, but Winsley was left feeling the shame of having almost taken a life, even when he was the victim. Jane still loved him, however, but guilt nearly drove them apart…until the same man returned and gave him words of encouragement to move past what Magrew had done and informed the pair that he was now paying for his sins in the most befitting manner one who has no respect for life can pay."

"Is…is it possible, you think…that they're both alive, then? Winsley and Jane Magrew, I mean?"

"Oh, yes, they're alive. They're supposed to be visiting here within two more days."

"Really?"

"Yes. One of the things about knowing what we know about the secret of life…is that those are affected differently by what happened. But we walk a line between light and darkness that is thinner because of how the secret is exploited."

Shinji looks at Leech Woman and understands why some people are affected differently by the knowledge of the power that gave the puppets their life and powers. Nodding his head in understanding, he accepts this revelation and says he hopes that when the two arrive, there will be no grief over the past or anguish over the present.

"Anguish is such a strong word I've heard you used," Toulon tells Shinji.

"It's easy to know anguish, but it's better to know things that mitigate it, such as love and friendship. I just never want to be around people that know how to cause feelings of grief and do so on a regular basis, and that includes my father, aunt and uncle. But those like Shado, Rumiko, Toya and you and the puppets…I feel at ease. I don't feel anguish…or any other form of discontent that would drive one to irrational behavior."

"Eeeeh…" Leech Woman goes, raising up her left hand.

Shinji bows to both of them and smiles. It was still unusual to know that while the puppets were as alive as they were, their inability to speak made for communication slightly difficult without the other means of communication, such as hand gestures or body language. But when Leech Woman raised her left or right hand up, Shinji knew it meant something that spoke volumes.

"Oh, how about this name: Redigōsuto? Lady Ghost. Because you're a lady and you're pale like a ghost. Or Redigō-Sama?"

Leech Woman raises her left hand up again…and Shinji smiles at her acceptance of the alternate name, as Shado didn't believe her name was doing her any kindness while they were hiding here at the Bodega Bay Inn.

"Thank you, Shinji," Toulon praises him, and Shinji bows again before resuming to carry out his maintenance of the empty rooms.

-x-

"…Unless there's proof that he's there, we have nothing to indicate that he is there, Ikari," went Fuyutsuki to Gendo in the latter's office, wishing he would give up on trying to find Shinji after being met with obstruction in the form of an elderly man that ran a hotel on an island with an active volcano that attracted some tourists. "And even if he were there, he may not comply with us to pilot again if he made a conscious decision to walk away."

"There's no one else that can pilot the Eva," Gendo states at his desk, silently fuming over the hindrance that existed from the lack of an update on the Third Child's whereabouts. "Every other candidate is either unfit or lacks resolve. So long as they survive, that is what they'll do."

And this is coming from a man that may still hold resentment towards his only son for kicking him in the balls when he left last year after the first attack, Fuyutsuki thinks as he wonders why Gendo was really stressing that Shinji be brought back if he went into hiding with his daughter and his friend and her son. Is it desperation or vengeance that compels you to look for him?

-x-

Two days had passed since the men in black suits came looking for Shinji, and the Bodega Bay Inn was now greeting its two newest guests for the time being.

Robert Winsley and Jane Magrew, or rather Jane Winsley, as they had been married for over ten years since that horrible experience with the puppets, had arrived at the hotel.

"Hello," greeted Rumiko to the couple. "Welcome to the Bodega Bay Inn. We hope you'll enjoy your time here."

"Thank you," Robert replies to the young lady. "We're invitees of Andre Toulon. Is he here?"

"Oh, yes, Mr. Toulon mentioned you were arriving here. He's in the parlor right now, next to the piano. I'll take you to him."

Rumiko gathered their two suitcases and set them on the trolley nearby and led the pair to the lounge where Toulon was.

"It's still hard to believe that this place is a detailed replica of the original hotel that used to be in the States," Jane expresses as they step into the lounge.

"Have you two," Rumiko utters, "been to the original hotel before?"

"Once," Robert says, "before the start of the new millennium. It was a different time back then."

"So, I've been told. Before the new century, it was very different from what is today. It is nice to meet you, guests of Andre Toulon."

Near the piano, the elderly Toulon stands in front of a picture of some people that were gathered around a table. He then turns to face the Winsley couple and smiles.

"Welcome, welcome," he greets them as he walks over to them. "I'm glad that you came all the way to Japan."

"Truth be told," Robert replies, "we almost didn't."

"Well, I'm glad you came."

"We…really needed to bury the hatchet," Jane states.

"I understand wholeheartedly."

-x-

Shinji had admiration for many of Toulon's puppets due to their aesthetics and the fact that they were driven by the people he knew from his past, but this puppet he, Rumiko and their children were looking at…was not something he found the slightest degree of fascination in. Not even Toya was impressed by its appearance like he had been with the other puppets that weren't alive like Toulon's friends, and Shado felt intimidated by its presence. The fact that it was made by a previous Puppet Master that was so vile in his practices that it was a wonder why Toulon kept it for so long when it would've been the nobler thing to just get rid of it so that its memory would fade away over time. But this was something Robert and Jane needed to deal with, to bury the darkest stain of their past in order to fully embrace the future.

Magrew's puppet, Tank, the puppet that once housed Robert's soul, stood on the table in the room before all that knew about the living puppets.

"I…wouldn't call this a puppet in any sense," Rumiko tells Toulon and Robert. "It's just…wrong. It's all wrong."

"Yes," Toulon agrees with her. "Magrew was trying to create a new life, but his methods were not proper in any sense."

"My father was trying to play God," Jane expresses, "and this was what he made in the end. It's not a puppet. It's not even an action figure or some sort of toy. It's a monster. An abomination."

"Are you…sure it won't come to life again, Mr. Toulon?" Toya asks.

"It was made to house Robert's soul," Toulon explains, "but the stranger that stopped him from putting an end to Magrew's life returned Robert to life, and rendered Tank soulless, and therefore lifeless. It can't come to life unless given new life. It is inanimate."

Robert sighs as he picks up the inanimate figure that his wicked father-in-law had once trapped him inside of…and dumped it into a ceramic bin. He then pours a fluid over it before lighting a match in front of everyone in the room.

"Goodbye, Tank," he tells the figure and then drops the match into the bin, setting it ablaze. "You were a curse on my life and the lives of others. I exorcise you from existence to set free those harmed by your presence. We are free from you now. We are free."

Jane holds his left hand as Rumiko holds Toya in her arms while Shinji holds Shado in his. The puppets watch and feel no guilt in knowing this being was being disposed of. It wasn't a puppet worthy of any to the mantle of Puppet Master, being an embodiment of dread, of evil.

"Mister Toulon, sir," went Shado, "what makes a good puppet good to look at?"

"Good to look at?" Toulon questions. "A good puppet has to be pleasing to the eye, which is the window to the soul. If the puppet cannot appeal to the soul of the beholder, it cannot be considered good to look at. Why do you ask, Shado?"

"Because…your friends, the puppets…they are good to look at. They are good to look at because they are good. You made your friends pretty."

"Thank you, dear."

"Eh-heh-heh," went Six-Shooter, tipping his hat to Shado.

"Urgh," Pinhead grunts softly, appreciating that Shado considered him pretty.

"Ahh," Blade gives a little bow to the girl as a sign of respect.

Jester spun his head around to display his smiling face to her.

"Ssss," Tunneler goes, moved by Shado's kind words.

"Maybe in a different lifetime," Rumiko expresses, "a different puppet will exist that will be worthy of the designation of Tank. Not like a tank, but maybe having the strength of a tank and can help others."

Robert turns to look at her…and smiles.

"Maybe," he agrees with her. "Maybe."

-x-

NERV was met with some scrutiny upon discovering that the Seventh Angel was high above the planet, dropping pieces of its own mass across the nation of Japan, as if correcting its trajectory and aim. All they had were the First and Second Children and five Evangelions, three of which had nobody to pilot them. And while Unit-00 had been upgraded to function with the production-model Evas, they couldn't make much use with Unit-01 following the Fourth and Fifth Angel attacks due to the First Child's low synchronization. This put expected pressure on NERV from Gendo to find a solution while he was away from Tokyo-3.

"…And how does he expect us to find a solution against an Angel that's a damn bomb?" Misato questions Ritsuko as they were in the bathroom. "He picked a bad time to leave!"

"If this Angel drops its own whole body down, even if it misses," Ritsuko explains, "its explosive power alone is enough to make this section of the country an extension of the ocean."

"How long do we have before it decides to drop from the sky?"

"The MAGI calculate at least eight hours. If we don't have a solution before then, we're as good as history."

Misato groans as she washes her hands and wonders how to defeat the Seventh Angel. As much as she thought about doing so, she couldn't blame the Third Child for up and leaving last year with his child and his friend and her child after the Third Angel. But if he had stayed, there might've been a possibility of NERV making a compromise to convince to pilot further. Sadly, he wasn't here right now, so she didn't have the luxury of fooling herself into thinking that he might've returned if a deal was made with him.

"Where are the First and Second Children right now?" She asks Ritsuko.

"Inside the Evas awaiting further orders," the faux-blond answers her.

"We need to start evacuating the city, just in case we're met with the worst-case scenario."

-x-

In the immortal words of Napoleon Bonaparte, as Gendo Ikari stood outside the Bodega Bay Inn, if anyone wanted something done right, they had to do it themselves rather than rely on others to do it for them. If he was going to get his way with his wayward son, he would have to force him to return to Tokyo-3 and pilot the Eva, even if it meant using extreme methods.

You've had more than enough time to come to terms with everything, Third Child, he thinks as he takes a step forward, towards the hotel, accompanied by his Section Two agents. It's time for you to grow up and do as you're expected to do. We have no more time for this petulant behavior you have exhibited. This time, you'll have nowhere to run or hide.

But Gendo was unaware that he was being watched from the shadows by some individuals that were often underestimated due to many factors.

To be continued…

A/N: This chapter was long overdue. Initially uncertain of how to progress the story, until I thought of Curse of the Puppet Master, and wanted to do an alternate scenario in which some of the characters of that film were given a reprieve from the evil of what was being done by one of the worst members of the pantheon of Puppet Masters. I hope you all enjoy this chapter until the next one, however long that will be.