Creation began on 07-17-24
Creation ended on 07-26-24
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Different from You: I'm not your Puppet
"Ahh!" Shado gasps as she sees the men walk into the lobby entrance of the hotel, recognizing one of them from a year ago. "Aah!"
Since she was helping to push a trolley, she let go and ran the way she came from, going down a hallway. Her fear of the man and the men with him making her react to her prime instinct of finding her father and letting him know.
"I guess she recognizes you," one of the Section Two agents informs Gendo; they had seen the footage of the infamous meeting between the commander of NERV and his son and granddaughter…and were somewhat sympathetic towards how the little girl exhibited fear towards her grandfather.
"If she's here," Gendo responds, "then that means the Third Child is here. Find the girl, find him or just find him. Either way, we have found who we're looking for."
-x-
As Shinji came out of the kitchen, he saw Shado running down the hallway, her face full of fright.
"Shado, what's wrong?" He asks her, and she runs into his legs, hugging them tightly. "Shado?"
"He's here," she tells him. "He's here. He's found us, Daddy."
Shinji looks up the hallway…and sees some men in black suits, one of which wore orange-tinted glasses…and is immediately repulsed by the sight of him.
"Oh, now, this is unpleasant," he says as he picks up his daughter and goes back into the kitchen.
Gendo walks over and enters the kitchen, seeing it empty…or just the illusion of it being empty.
"Where are you hiding, boy?" He questions as he looks around the room. "You run away for a year, and you hide in a place like this, out of the way and remote, working for an old man that probably should've died years ago?"
Hiding beneath floorboards of the kitchen, Shinji and Shado waited until Gendo left.
"We're still facing a crisis where you're required, boy," they hear him continue to speak, "and I still have need of you, so I'll make this clear to you. Return with me to Tokyo-3, resume piloting of the Eva to face the Angels…or else I'll make things difficult for you here."
Holding onto Shado for solace, Shinji ignores his father's demand. There was no way he was going back with him to pilot that abomination that destroyed lives after he left with Rumiko and their children.
"I will make sure you lose that little girl of yours that should've never been born to begin with," he hears Gendo say, which infuriates him.
"So, it's true, then," he and Shado hear Rumiko's voice in the kitchen. "The way you speak of Shinji and Shado. You really do hate them…and you don't know a thing about either of them. That's really pathetic of you, Mr. Ikari."
"And who are you?"
"Oh, you must already know who I am. I was with Shinji and Shado when they went to Tokyo-3 to see you last year. And you operate a lousy agency, so you already have access to people's records, violating their privacy rights just to mess with them. How rotten can you be to know nothing about Shinji's relationships with other people?"
Unlike Shinji, Rumiko was willing to kick the hornets' nest if it meant learning something about someone and how they feel about other people. She also had a strong sense of trying to get to the root of a person's problem with someone else, which is why she told Shinji that if an opportunity ever presented itself to her, she would try to make his father answer to why he was so awful towards him and Shado to the point where he didn't want to be anywhere near the rest of the family they were born into. But Shinji didn't want Rumiko to endanger herself by trying to get some measure of revelation from someone he injured a year ago when they left that empty city. Even before they ever heard of the Evangelion, Rumiko was the only person Shinji had in his life that he could call his best friend; she didn't care what others thought of him or who his parents were to the point that she wanted to know who he was and wanted to be.
"A person without a dream or ambition is simply someone that has yet to be inspired by someone or something," she once told him after they met. "Be whoever or whatever you want to be, not what others believe you should be."
"Rumiko Gaidoku," he hears Gendo say to her. "You're inconvenient. Why do you even bother to be around that useless boy?"
"Useless?" Rumiko utters, offended by his choice of words. "Hasn't anyone ever told you that when you consider someone to be useless, it only means that you don't truly expect anything from them? If you view Shinji as useless, why are you here, then? Why are you looking for him? Do you even know the answer?"
"I don't need to tell you anything connected to my business."
"If it relates in any way to Shinji or Shado, I'm afraid it is my business. They're in the same trunk as my Toya; they're precious to me, and I can't stand it when others want to hurt them."
There is a silence that bothers Shinji because he isn't sure what is going on.
"If you're not going to answer such a simple question," he hears Rumiko say, "then I'm afraid that you must leave. Bodega Bay is for guests and tourists, and you are neither a guest nor a tourist. The exit is this way."
"I'm not leaving without those two."
"Really? Well, they don't want anything to do with you, and Shinji knows why you're stressing that he be brought back to Tokyo-3…and he outright refuses to oblige you or anyone else that has the same mindset. In the last year, you've had twelve people our age work for you…and you burned through most of them. If you needed twelve of them, something should've told you that what you were doing wasn't working."
"We don't have time for childish debates. Either tell me where they are…or get out of my way."
"Well, then, I guess you're going to have to make me get out of your way…because I have nothing to tell you on where Shinji and Shado are hiding from someone like you. It's like I said, they're in the same trunk as my Toya. They're precious to me. When you love someone that much, you're willing to do almost anything and everything to see them happy."
This was no surprise to Shinji, even though he was surprised to hear her say it. Love was among the things he and Rumiko found to be rather complexed due to their initial negative view on such a subject; for them, love from those that sought to exploit you for personal pleasure were as vile as the love they claim to give you, and from that negativity came the only good thing that was their own children. Neither wanted to experience that type of love again, from anyone associated with their respective pasts, but were alien to what real love was if it was never given freely, not like how they longed for such. A handshake, a hug, even a kiss on the cheek, that was as comprehensible as the teen parents could get in a world ravaged unknowns and made worse by people with dark ambitions.
"I fail to understand what you see in the boy," Gendo claims.
"More than what you refuse to see," Rumiko replies, "which isn't very much. You…don't associate with Shinji. You have no understanding of what he has been through. Do you really think that, just because you're his father, that he has to jump for you whenever you call? Do you honestly expect for him to drop everything he knows and chooses to do, willingly, I might add, just because you expect him to follow your commands like some soldier? That's just cruel and twisted. He wouldn't do what you made him do last year again. Even if the world weren't in any danger, he wouldn't do it again. Once was enough, and he hated it. He still hates it to this very day…and wouldn't get back into that monster even if you raised a gun to his head. I don't blame him, though. It was an unpleasant experience that he went into detail about with me. The fact that you can't understand that…or don't care about it…is one of the things that make you a horrible person that will not change. You're like that guy from Greek mythology that became the background source for that disorder that people develop over time…or worse, that hotel man in the States that people talk about being a horrible person."
Shado looks at Shinji and nods her head in compliance to Rumiko's claims that her paternal grandfather was similar to the guy they saw once on television that looked awful. While Shinji wouldn't deny this claim, he did feel his father was worse to look at than some guy in the States that owned a hotel.
"You're a rape and incest victim," they hear Gendo say to her. "Your bastard son was fathered by either your father or your brother. What right do you have to criticize me when you have no idea what is going on here?"
"I want the people closest to me to be happy. Shinji was often criticized for being like you, even though he has no similarities with you at all; you walked away from raising him when his mother passed, but he stayed to raise his daughter after learning his attacker passed, and not because he cared about a woman that was incapable of compassion, but because he didn't want to echo what you did to him. And contrary to what some believe, Shinji loves Shado. She became more than just his daughter. She became his reason for living, his reason for believing in there being hope for those that feel hopeless. So, yes, I criticize you, Mr. Ikari. I don't know you, but I know of you from Shinji, and what he tells me is what he knows of you…because he doesn't know you, either. If you don't like the criticism, you know where the door is. Walk away from here."
Please, just leave, thought Shinji as he wanted to get out of the hiding place with Shado.
"Very well, then," he hears Gendo say, but something about the way he said it made Shinji think it wasn't in compliance with Rumiko's insistence that he leave the inn. "But if that boy is listening, I do hope he hears this: I'm not leaving empty-handed. If you're someone he holds dear, then he'll come for you."
What does he mean, I'll come for Rumiko? Shinji wonders, confused, until he realizes that his father was up to something awful. No, Rumiko! Get out of there!
"What are… Hey! Hey, let me go!" Rumiko gasps, and Shinji and Shado hear what sounds like a struggle. "I knew Shinji was right about you! Everyone I spoke to was right about you! You're a despicable cretin!"
"If he wants you back alive, he'll come to Tokyo-3 for you," Gendo says.
"If anything happens to me, I hope you have life insurance of a different sort, because you'll pay. There's always a price to be paid for knowingly doing wrong unto others."
"If anything happens to you, it'll be his fault."
"No, it'll be your fault."
"Hey, what's going on in here?" They hear a third voice, and Shinji recognized it as Toulon's. "Oh, my."
Shinji couldn't risk Toulon getting hurt by his father and came up from under the floorboard beside the freezer. But when he saw Toulon, the elder was unharmed, although a little concerned…and the kitchen was empty.
"Which way?" He asks Toulon, and saw that Leech Woman was with him, and she pointed over to the front entrance to the kitchen. "Thank you, Redigō-Sama."
He runs out the entrance and sees Rumiko being dragged away by the men in black suits.
"Rumiko!" He yells, running after them.
His father turns to face him…and pulls out a gun.
He wouldn't! Shinji thinks.
Bang! Gendo fires at Shinji, just missing his left kneecap, but grazing the skin, causing him to fall over.
"Aaaurgh!" He gasps as he tries to get back. "Father! Damn you!"
Rumiko struggles to get free from the men in black, but they had her pinned good.
"Shinji!" She yells, watching him get up to resume his pursuit. "Shinji!"
They dragged her out of the hotel and into a black car.
"If you want her back," Gendo tells Shinji as he gets into the car, "you know where you need to be, Third Child!"
Shinji staggers out of the front entrance and watches as the car drives off, his face contorted between anger and desperation. But his eyes catch on to who he sees on the street.
-x-
Toya, fortunate to have avoided being run over by the getaway car, got up off the ground as it drove away with his mother and those men.
"Toya," went Shinji to him, "what were you doing out here?!"
"I heard a loud bang," he answers, "so I hid under the car with Pinhead-Sama and Six-Shooter-Sama. I heard Mommy yelling your name and the people taking her away get into the car."
Fortunately, Toya was unscathed, but if what he said was true, two of Toulon's friends were not with him right now.
"Where are Pinhead and Six-Shooter?" Shinji asks him.
"I told them to try and help Mommy," he reveals. "Where are they taking her? Where are they taking my mom?"
"Tokyo-3."
-x-
"…If he truly cares about you," said Gendo to Rumiko, holding a gun at her in the backseat of the car, "he'll come for you."
"Neither of us have left Bodega Bay since we arrived in the night of last year," Rumiko tells him. "It was a miracle that we just ended up there. It was like magic of a different sort. All we did was walk away from Tokyo-3 and felt like we were walking for a long time. How do you expect him to go back to that soulless city after everything you did?"
"I still have a use for him."
"A use? He's not your puppet, you know. Why can't you treat him like a person?"
"I have no time to coddle a useless child."
"Don't you dare talk about Shinji like that. He has more kindness of heart that you will never have. And he's a better man than you could ever hope yourself to be."
Ring-ring! Gendo heard his phone rang, and he answers it.
"Ikari," he utters, and Rumiko could hear a tiny voice from the small distance between herself and this disgrace of a man. "What?"
She sees his grip on the gun tighten and she prays to the kami that she would make it out of this mess alive to see her friends and loved ones in one piece. While death might've been a brief moment in time, she didn't wish to experience while still in her teens and an unmarried mother. Any age where one's life was unfulfilled before death was something she believed to be a young life that held promise. It didn't matter if one was four, five, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen…or even less than one-hundred-thirty years old.
"Is the base still intact?" Gendo demands, and his grip loosens on his gun. "I'll be back in five hours. Just make sure to have Unit-01 ready."
Rumiko glares at him. Whatever he has planned, she knows he will not get his way. One way or another, he would pay a high price and lose big. One way or another.
"You won't get away with this," she tells him. "You won't even live to do anything but regret your actions."
"Is that a threat?" He questions her.
"No. It's only a warning. When it becomes a threat, trust me, you'll know it."
If only she knew what Gendo had learned from the phone call. If only she knew that she was not the only one that was taken from the rebuilt and relocated hotel.
-x-
Shinji grimaces as his gunshot graze was nearly finished being stitched closed by a medical specialist friend of Toulon's, with his left hand being held by Shado during the whole minor surgery her father was undergoing.
"Ha…ha-ha-ah," went the specialist as he finished stitching the graze close.
"Thank you, Dr. Death," Shinji praises the puppet that resembled a brownish skeleton dressed in surgical scrubs.
"Ha…ha," Dr. Death goes as he steps back from Shinji's leg.
"Thank you, Dr. Death," Shado also praises the living puppet.
"How is your leg, Shinji?" Toulon asks the young father as he examines the stitching.
"It'll heal up in due time," he says. "My father took Rumiko to Tokyo-3. He wants me to go back there to pilot the Eva again."
"And Pinhead and Six-Shooter are with Rumiko. They'll make sure to keep her safe."
"But I gotta make sure that they all return together. And I can't let Toya grow up without his mother around."
"I miss Mommy," went Toya, expressing his woes of not seeing his mother again.
"I'm going to bring her back."
"You'll need assistance," Toulon tells him, and behind him stood several other puppets that were of similar brownish coloration as Dr. Death. "Take them with you."
In the years following Second Impact, Toulon had found the time to revive his friends of the past before he ascended to the status of Puppet Master, restoring their bodies. Because they were the original set that he possessed when he learned of the secret of life from Afzel, Rumiko had suggested to Toulon that they should be designated the Retro Puppets to differentiate them from the modern-looking ones. So, the ones bearing the same names as their successors became Retro-Pinhead, Retro-Six-Shooter and Retro-Blade, leaving Dr. Death, Drill Sargent and Cyclops with their names as they were.
Shinji bows his head to Toulon and looks to the Retro Puppets.
"Will you help me bring Rumiko back?" He asks them; even though they followed Toulon, he felt it was only right to ask them out of respect for their independence.
Retro-Pinhead stepped over and knelt down on his left leg, followed by Retro-Blade and Retro-Six-Shooter.
"Thank you," he praises them.
"Superhero puppets," Shado calls the puppets.
-x-
It was taking Rumiko everything she could muster just to shut out the noise made by the spinning blades of the helicopter she was on with Gendo and his lackeys. Her first time on a helicopter, but not a pleasant experience for her when it has her being a hostage in a situation instigated by the father of someone she's been with since her childhood years and has helped her through the difficult trauma of deciding to get away from her parents and brother. It seemed like wherever she and Shinji were, somehow, some way, their parents in one way or another always find a way to slither back into their lives after undesired happenings. Except in this case, it was Shinji's father that was causing the ruckus because he couldn't have his way. Looking out a window, Rumiko sees the world beyond the helicopter…and notices the lack of civilization the aircraft was flying towards.
"Did someone get careless and drop a bomb?" She asks Gendo, needing to make herself heard.
"Only the incompetence and refusal of those tasked with ensuring mankind's future could allow for something like this to occur," he says in response to. "This is what happens when people like that boy you left with last year refuse to fall in line for the greater good."
She turns to face him and utters, "You can't blame Shinji for something like this. The fault is on the ones in charge of NERV or whatever organization or group that gets put into a position of this magnitude. Therefore, the fault is yours, Mr. Ikari. If you spent more time looking for solutions that actually work instead of hounding Shinji, especially after he refused to cooperate with you, then maybe something like this would've never happened. But no…you chose to persist in hounding Shinji. You chose to hassle him…and in doing so, you left people with no actual guidance or support in dealing with a situation they were unprepared for."
"NERV was prepared as best as it was at the time. We simply lacked the number of pilots necessary to confront the threat."
"We know that you went through more than ten teens after Shinji and I left that empty city following that night with our kids. About a dozen, at least. We know that three of them are dead, the rest are maimed. One of them can't walk, anymore. That should've told you people well enough that whatever it was you were doing was not working out. Shinji hated the first time, and he swore he wouldn't do it again. You can't make him do what you want if he exercises his right to refuse you. Are you that blind and ignorant to see that when someone says 'no', they mean it?"
"We never have time to tolerate one's foolish choices."
"That's nothing more than some weak-ass bullshit from a weak-ass bully of a man that's less than because he can't own up to the fact that he's failed at all that he does."
"How dare you."
Rumiko frowns at him.
"Of course, that's only my opinion of you," she tells him. "Everyone's entitled to their own opinion about someone they don't know or like, and this is mine about you. You're not Father of the Year, you don't give Shinji the time of day when he requires it, and you don't give sound advice. Who do you think you are to Shinji and Shado? What do you think you are to them?"
"Who and what are you to them?" Gendo responds.
"A friend…a companion…a sister figure…someone to talk to when down in the dumps…and someone willing to put up with their issues because she actually cares about them."
"And what are you to the Third Child?"
"What do you think I am to Shinji? You're the one demonstrating curiosity towards your son's relationships. And why do you want to know, anyway?"
Soon enough, the helicopter begins to descend towards the massive crater that used to be where Tokyo-3 once stood, exposing the metal pyramid that was NERV HQ.
Mere hours ago, the Seventh Angel had descended from space and towards Tokyo-3. Only Evangelion Units-00 and 02 were present to do anything about it, and while the explosion was mitigated to some degree, preserving most of the landmass, it came at the cost of the entire city, exposing NERV HQ to the world and would soon convince the masses that the paramilitary agency was no longer adequate in protecting the people. It was believed that if they had three Evas and three pilots, the situation would've been different to the point of averted, but this wasn't the case, and nobody left in NERV could say or do anything to make it so that it was. Not when they were already down a slippery slope towards the end of their rope that represented their lifeline, not the lifeline of the human race.
"Was there anyone even living in the city when it was decimated?" Rumiko asks.
-x-
"…Fortunately, the city was evacuated prior to the descent of the Seventh Angel," went Misato to Gendo as they were in the holding cells of NERV HQ, "leaving only the NERV personnel underground. The explosion was contained to the best of the Eva units' capabilities, but the city was lost. Over two-thousand people have to relocate and rebuild elsewhere."
"And what of the pilots?" Gendo demands to know.
"The First and Second Children survived with minor burns. Unfortunately, Unit-00 was damaged extensively from the explosion."
"This isn't the Third Child," Ritsuko utters as she looks at the young woman sitting on a bench, recognizing her from last year. "What is the meaning of her being here? She's not a pilot candidate in accordance with the Marduk Institute."
"The Third Child refused to cooperate," Gendo explains. "He'll come for this girl, and then he'll pilot again."
Fuyutsuki looks through the observation window at the young teen mother and then looks at Gendo with discontent.
"So, you kidnapped a girl your son is friends with to force him to come here to get back," he says. "Ikari, this isn't right."
"We don't have time for moral concerns."
"Unfortunately, we don't have time for much of anything, Ikari. The Committee demands an audience with us. Now."
As they left the holding cells, Rumiko sighs as she wonders what these people were going to do with her. It couldn't have been any worse than what her mother had once done…but the mere thought of never seeing her son again…was enough to make her worry about the worst imaginable outcome.
-x-
"Be careful out there, you two," Toulon says to Shinji and Rick, who would be accompanying Shinji as they were boarding the taxi to the airport.
"The challenge will be to get there," Rick says to Toulon, "but the most troubling thing afterwards is what comes next."
"But NERV has yet to face or endure the might of a Puppet Master that fights for what is right. Make sure you all come back."
Shinji hated the thought of leaving Shado and Toya alone, but he trusts Toulon with their safeguarding until he and Rumiko return from Tokyo-3. Hopefully, it wouldn't be too long, and Rumiko would be protected by Pinhead and Six-Shooter.
"Let's get going, Puppet Master Rick Myers," he addresses Rick.
The taxi drove off, leaving the rebuilt Bodega Bay Inn resort.
"I hope they come back soon," Shado says as she, Toya and Toulon step back into the hotel once the taxi was out of sight.
"You and I both, Ms. Shado Ikari," adds Toulon as he sits down in a nearby chair. "Hopefully, they'll be back in a few days, give or take."
"Yeah," went Toya, trying to be optimistic. "Your father and my mother are tough, and they have the help of the most resourceful puppets we know of going with them. Who else can handle a fist bump from Pinhead when he's protecting someone? Or the intimidating pose of Six-Shooter when he takes aim?"
"But…what about that puppet that Mr. Toulon offered Mr. Myers along with the Retro Puppets?" Shado questions.
"Ah, that one," went Toulon to the toddlers, "was the last puppet I ever worked on in the past. It was a very special one for times of dire need."
"Dire need? What does that mean?"
"Oh, it means…such a particular puppet was only sought after when other methods weren't enough to get out of a situation."
"Like…a last hope?"
"Yeah. Exactly like a last hope."
To be continued…
A/N: So, now that Gendo is going to get screwed, things are looking elsewhere at the moment. Who else suspects that things are going to get worse for Gendo? As for the Retro Puppets, I felt it was a good idea to revive them when Toulon was brought back to life following Second Impact, and he had plenty of time to do so. And which puppet do you think will make an appearance in the next chapter?