Kyoto PTG Node Facility
January 28, 2042
1141 hours
Fate just wasn't done rubbing her failings in her face, was it?
"Wh-... why are you here?"
The instant those words left her mouth, Yui instantly kicked herself as she saw the son she hadn't seen for nearly a decade flinch like a kicked puppy and cast his eyes down at the floor.
It would be a colossal lie to claim she had never thought about him over the years. All it took was one decision on her part, one proposal on Gendo's part she could not live with, and their marriage was irreversibly damaged.
When the court decided to give Shinji's custody to Gendo, Yui could've easily contested it as a mother rightly should have had. She could've testified about things that would've immediately had her ex-husband declared as unfit for being awarded any child's custody, disbarred from ever working in the industry and more likely than not imprisoned as well. But she didn't because the inevitable questions of 'and just how exactly do you know about these things?' would have resulted in the authorities uncovering something that was better off buried. Gendo would have been arrested, yes – but so would have been over a dozen other people, including her. Due to his parents' actions, young Shinji Ikari's choices were narrowed down to growing up without his mother or growing up without parents at all.
And so Yui let them take her son while she was busy forging a fake identity for another child. She kept telling herself it was to protect the others – but a small voice in the back of her mind always questioned if she was really only covering her own ass, especially once the adoption papers for one Rei Ayanami came through and it fully hit Yui that in her anger at Gendo, she traded one child for another.
Only for her adoptive daughter to end up hating her for it anyway.
Yui's own failings aside, it should've been obvious in hindsight. Rei was always hanging around Shinji practically since she could spell his name. The last time they saw each other, Yui had to hold Rei's hand to keep her from running after him. And after he was gone... Yui had never heard Rei cry like that before.
Or since. After that day, something was irreversibly broken in Rei's heart and the formerly shy but kind-hearted girl was gone, replaced by someone who simply no longer cared about anything anymore after the only two people in the world she used to care about were both taken away by grownups for reasons above her head.
"So, um... how... how have you been? I mean, it's been-"
Whatever Shinji Ikari was about to say was muffled by the bearhug Yui gave him. And she didn't care if the bodyguards saw that; he was her son, damn it!
It did, however, make her acutely aware that he wasn't standing on his own feet. Once she pulled back a bit, it was patently obvious that Shinji Ikari wasn't missing either of his legs. He was also wearing shoes on both feet. And yet...
"Why are you...?"
He followed her eyes and looked even more uncomfortable, if such a thing was somehow possible. – "Oh, that's been... a while ago. Few years after we moved to Polygonus, there was an... outbreak. Polio."
A chill ran through Yui's heart at the word. She heard in her youth how the disease had supposedly been on the verge of being completely eradicated before Second Impact interrupted vaccine manufacturing. Yui herself had been lucky enough to have gotten her shots just a few weeks prior to the Seven Hour War and the Combine's reproductive suppression field cut off the supply of fresh hosts for children's diseases – but after the Revolution, a lot of them came back with a vengeance as the ousted occupiers' leftover medical supplies quickly ran out and organic chemists desperately rushed to jury-rig derelict machinery into cooking as much medicine as they could with skills none of them practiced for two decades.
Yui herself started her own scientific career that way.
"They, um... they couldn't ship the vaccine in from Earth quickly enough."
That was sadly plausible as well. Even these days, Earth had it easy when it came to shipping food and medicine in bulk. Other worlds, however, were not that lucky: even from Polygonus, news of any immediate emergency took a full week to make it to Earth on an FTL courier ship, followed by days until whatever cargo was needed to relieve said emergency was all boxed up and lifted to Nexus Station, followed by another week until it actually arrived to the Proteus system, followed by even more time until the shipment actually reached the planet itself. And that was for the closest colony to Sol. In the pressurized, airtight environment of the colonies, diseases spread like wildfire and only the most heavily settled worlds like Polygonus could financially and logistically justify the work and expense of building on-site chemical plants for exclusive use by the medical industry. There was a reason why the AEL chose to not move any of their operations offworld despite near-unlimited availability of real estate: when it came to ready access to the organic materials their laboratories and chemical vats needed, Earth simply had no alternative.
None of which calmed Yui's mind, however, from the horrified realization of just who was to blame. Again.
"God, I'm so sorry..."
It was a cliché, but what could she say? What could she possibly say to the son who got crippled because he was away from Earth due to that damn divorce?!
"I-it's not that bad, really." – Shinji tried to reassure her. – "I'm not paralyzed, I can walk, just... not without crutches. Sitting in this" – He patted the armrest of the wheelchair. – "is just less tiring, that's all. I've been thinking about getting an exoskeleton, but... I don't want to bother dad about it."
"I'll get one for you." – Yui said immediately.
"Really, it's not a big deal-"
"It is to me."
Shinji looked down at the floor. – "He was the one who had this wheelchair made for me in the first place." – he said quietly. – "I... I don't want to sound ungrateful by asking for more."
...and the worst part of hearing that sentence is that Yui couldn't decide whether it was a sign of Gendo being a bad parent or Shinji having taken after his father at his age. Because despite her ex-husband's gruff and blunt demeanor, Yui eventually got close enough to the man to discover that the reason behind said demeanor was that he just plain didn't know what to say to other people. He had no interest in small talk with strangers about inane things and was almost always convinced other people wouldn't give a damn about his thoughts either, even though he was neither blind nor deaf and could sometimes show surprising insight for someone who usually had to have his opinion al but pried out of him.
On the other hand, he also sometimes had trouble reading the room. Or, as Yui found out the hard way, able to maintain a perfectly straight face while laying out in detail something horrifying he genuinely thought she would agree with. And just a year beforehand, she very well might have. But after four years of watching Rei grow up, day by day...
...something snapped in Yui as it finally hit her what the introvert she had once fallen in love with was truly capable of once properly enabled by someone else.
But Shinji didn't know about any of that and shouldn't. She shouldn't even be thinking about this. Not now.
"It's not ungrateful to ask your parents for something. So, you were really sent here by your father?"
"Y-yeah." – He looked outside through the window. – "It... feels weird to be back here. I haven't been to space since we moved to Polygonus."
That was mildly reassuring. At least it meant his condition wasn't aggravated by space travel – not that Yui had much knowledge about microgravity's effects on polio in particular to begin with, as that specific combination was not exactly a focus of research for the AEL, even with the known effects of Polygonus' slightly higher-than-Earth gravity on young children.
"What about school?"
"Oh, don't worry about it. I already graduated."
...what. – "...you're 15."
"No, I'm serious. I have the documents in my pack..." – He trailed off with a sheepish look. – "...somewhere. I've been thinking of applying to university, but work's been getting in the way."
"At Gehirn."
"Yes."
Her son was actually employed by Gendo?! – "...what exactly are you doing there? Internship?"
"No. Mechanical designer. I just, uh... don't have a degree yet, so the other engineers don't always take me seriously."
...okay, Yui decided she definitely needed to see that graduation certificate.
"What designs are we talking about?"
He looked away, fidgeting with an uncomfortable expression. – "I, uh... I can't... talk about it. I'm sorry. Employee non-disclosure agreement. You know."
And she did. So she decided to drop the subject. – "It's alright. Did your father tell you why you're here?"
"Consultation regarding the..." – Shinji paused and glanced towards the bodyguards in what Yui realized was seeing if they were within earshot before continuing in a low tone. – "things we've been making for you. I have full clearance and authority to requisition Gehirn's manufacturing assets on Earth if needed. I... hope that will help."
"It will." – she assured him. If that sort of thing was actually on the table as-is, it opened certain options she could use right now. – "You know of course that I'll have to verify that clearance, just to be safe."
"It's okay." – he replied with a nod, looking a bit relieved. – "I have to call in that I'm here anyway."
Tokyo-2, Outer District 6
January 28, 2042
1812 hours
"I'm back."
"Hey. Asuka told me you- What the FUCK?!"
Kaworu had never seen anyone launch themselves out of a couch as fast as Shephard was next to him in an instant.
"It's not as bad as it looks." – he offered, carefully prying his hurt arm out of his coat.
If anything, his hand actually hurt more at the moment, what with him having been unable to stuff it into his pocket to shield it against the cold without fouling said pocket with the blood still running down his arm. With how heavily it was snowing outside, it wasn't as if he was going to leave a visible blood trail behind him anyway. On the other hand, it was starting to look like the coat was a lost cause from how much he bled into the sleeve.
Pity. He'd been wearing it for years now and there had been nothing wrong with it in terms of utility.
"Kitchen, arm on the table, NOW!" – the adult barked in a tone that broke no dissent, grabbing Kaworu by the latter's unhurt arm to pull him along.
"What happened?" – Asuka asked as she appeared from the direction of her room.
"Not now! Bring that eyebrow plucker of yours, then get me a flashlight!"
In the kitchen, Shephard unceremoniously threw Kaworu into the nearest chair before practically running to the fridge and tearing it open, grabbing one of Kaworu's private bottles and settling it on the table, followed by two glasses he promptly poured full after checking the bottle's label.
"If you're thinking of getting me drunk so that it won't hurt as badly, that won't be enough." – Kaworu pointed out.
Instead of replying, Shephard dipped his fingers into one of the glasses and rubbed the alcohol over them. When Asuka arrived and handed him a tweezer, he tossed it into the other glass before noisily pulling a chair next to Kaworu's and dropping himself onto it, attention directed entirely on the teen's wound as he carefully probed the underside of the arm with his finger.
"What the hell are you even doing here instead of in the hospital?" – he grumbled eventually as he carefully cleared the immediate surroundings with the alcohol. For his part, Kaworu was glad he at least wasn't getting it actually poured onto the wound. He had no particular desire to find out how much that would sting.
"No need."
Shepard gave him a distinctly unamused look. – "Kid, don't think for a single microsecond I haven't seen a gunshot entry wound before. That was way too much blood for a scrape."
From the corner of his eye, Kaworu saw Asuka looking like a deer in headlights. – "Are you... going to take it out?" – she asked uncertainly.
"Depends on where it is. The fact that he's still upright means it missed the artery, but there's no exit wound. He ain't that lucky." – Shephard sighed and reached for the tweezer, shaking off the remaining alcohol on it before looking Kaworu in the eye. – "Kid... this is most likely gonna hurt like a bitch, but I need you to hold still as much as you can. Okay?"
"Okay."
"You might wanna not look, but stay calm. I got this."
Kaworu considered pointing out that he wasn't squeamish about seeing his own blood, what with once having picked pieces of broken glass out of his own feet with his hands, but figured this might not have been the best time.
"Nor was getting yourself shot in the first place." – Tabris growled in his head.
'Why is it my fault that this guy was there?'
"He told you to leave well enough alone. You did not listen."
'Because you saw how quickly he folded when he realized he lost the element of intimidation. Gun or not, he was just another bully.'
"One who could have killed us both had he aimed slightly to the side. Did you not realize I am also a denizen of your body for the time being? If you die, I will die as well."
Kaworu was about to reply when pain flared up as he felt the tweezer move inside. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Asuka flinch but not look away.
"...ow."
"Hold still." – Shephard said immediately. – "Asuka, shine that thing in there."
'Why don't you just leave, then?' – he posed the question to Tabris, if only to take his mind off of what was going on.
"Again you assume I have a choice. Lilim are not designed to house more than one complete soul in a single corporeal form. That either of us survived the process in the first place is already a miracle."
'But why me, in particular?'
The Angel remained silent for a long time before replying. – "Consider it the price I had to pay for my own survival."
There was another, much stronger flare of pain that made Kaworu hiss and involuntarily flinch before the pressure suddenly lessened and he felt blood trickling down his arm once again.
"Got it." – Shepard said and the glass in front of him clinked with the sound of something small dropping into it, the alcohol immediately clouding red.
Kaworu didn't need a closer look to know what it was.
"Your ID card in your room?" – Shephard asked as he reached for the kitchen towel and rolled it up.
"Yeah. In my bag."
"Asuka, hold this here for me, then go get it. We're going to Sanada." – The girl wordlessly nodded and held the towel against Kaworu's arm while her father pulled Kaworu's already bloody shirt tight around it.
Painfully tight, but not as bad as how the arm was now starting to feel.
"But you already got the bullet out." – Kaworu protested as he experimentally tried to bend his arm but quickly decided that was a bad idea.
"I'm a leatherneck, not a corpsman." – Shephard interrupted him as Asuka hurried out of the kitchen. – "I've done bullet removal before and know basic field dressing, but that's it. You're lucky that thing hit bone or else it would've been too deep for me, but might've cracked it. Best we let a doctor look at it."
Kaworu found he could not argue with that logic.
"That and the doc – both one – would have my hide if I pulled a repeat of last time."
He could not argue with that either.
Chapter completed on 22/12/31. Not entirely satisfied with the first half; I'm admittedly not good at writing emotional scenes.
Despite what movies frequently show, bullet removal is apparently not usually an urgent matter these days unless it is lodged against something (nerve, major blood vessel, etc.) that really shouldn't have anything pressing against it or might migrate to such a location. While lead poisoning was an entirely valid concern centuries ago due to musket balls and the like having been made out of actual pure lead, modern ammunition is usually (but not always, such as in the case of shotgun pellets) jacketed to keep barrel friction from deforming the projectile, which helps with both accuracy and toxicity (and keeps it legal as per the Hague Conventions). Additionally, higher kinetic energy (from the use of modern powders) and overall smaller projectiles (ie. the impact energy being delivered in a smaller area) means that modern bullets not only penetrate clothing easier without losing enough momentum to fail to come back out on the other side (again, in most cases; hollow-point antipersonnel rounds being an exception, but those are illegal for military use to begin with), they also don't drag as many cloth scraps (and the dirt/mud on said cloth) into the wound with them, which used to be the main source of infection wherever gunshots were involved.
Because of these factors, amateurs with no medical training are highly advised to not even attempt bullet removal due to the risk of their bumbling doing more damage than what the bullet itself did, just stem the bleeding as much as possible and call the pros. Even the actual surgeons sometimes don't touch bullets they judge to be harmless and there are MANY anecdotes in history about people who carried some within their bodies all their lives, sometimes without even being aware of it. The scene in this chapter is a concession done for narrative reasons: as Shephard notes, he's not a medic by occupational specialty, but first aid IS part of basic training and he was presumably shot enough times at Black Mesa to have had to treat himself at least once, so he knows what he's doing slightly more than the average person would.