Chapter 3 - The Everything-You-Knew-Was-Wrong Affair, Part 2

*Mild warning for brief mentions of suicide.*

Shinji's eyes widened as he looked from Kodama to the photo of Kihl and back. "How-?!"

"1998: SEELE, under Kihl's guidance, pulls a number of strings in the U.N. to establish a scientific research concern called the U.N. Artificial Evolution Laboratory," Barbara Ann preemptively answered as she began laying out a timeline, just as Kodama shifted to the next slide. "1999: that entity puts together what would become known as the Katsuragi Expedition, named for its leader, Dr. Tetsuma Katsuragi." The next slide that accompanied Barbara Ann's words showed a group photo of the entire expeditionary team. Shinji noted, with further surprise, the presence of his father, and a teenage girl standing right next to Dr. Katsuragi; it didn't take long for him to realize that the girl was none other than Misato, meaning that Dr. Katsuragi was her father. "Later that year, the Expedition journeys to Antarctica, acting on information provided by the Committee to investigate what is described as the discovery of the millennium." The next slide that followed, a still taken from CCTV footage salvaged from the base camp, showed Gendo, a couple of metal briefcases in-hand, departing from the site by helicopter. "2000, September 13th: the former Gendo Rokubungi, now Ikari, departs from the expedition in a hurry, just as Dr. Katsuragi and his team are about to conduct a significant experiment involving the massive, both figurative and literal, finds that greeted them upon arriving in the Antarctic. Using one of the objects found at the site, a large implement the Committee had codenamed the 'Lance of Longinus', Dr. Katsuragi and his team initiate the 'contact experiment' that would merge human DNA with the giant frozen in the ice below them, the alien entity the Committee had codenamed 'Adam'. Katsuragi and his team thought they would be discovering a new, long-fabled perpetual energy source as a result...Instead..."

"You can figure out the rest," Max added in somberly. Shinji, knowing full well what they implied, nodded slowly.

"February 14th, 2001," Barbara Ann continued, "Kihl and company, again using their influence, ends the global conflicts by getting all nations to sign and adopt the Valentine Cease-Fire Treaty, in the process expanding the U.N.'s powers, including putting the majority of the world's militaries under its authority-all with the public unaware that the U.N. was now under SEELE's control." Kodama switched to the next slide. "Around this time, SEELE, through the U.N., reorganizes the Artificial Evolution Laboratory as a new global agency called Gehirn. Its founding leadership-" The next slide showed a quartet of people standing in front of a building in the former Hakone prefecture. "-Consisted of Gendo and Yui Ikari; Kozo Fuyutsuki, who according to one of our sources was effectively blackmailed into joining up; and Dr. Naoko Akagi." A flicker of recognition came to Shinji at that moment. "In case you're wondering, she's the mother of Ritsuko Akagi, who you know as the current lead scientist of NERV. Gehirn was tasked with the purpose of utilizing the research of the Katsuragi Expedition to prevent a possible Third Impact from occurring. The two main initiatives for this would be Project-E-" The next slide astonished Shinji with the image of the development of what would become the Evangelions, the sight of the enormous, almost partly-organic skeletons proving quite unnerving. "-and the development of the MAGI supercomputers, the latter of which would be headed by Naoko Akagi." Barbara Ann paused at that as Max took over.

"I apologize if the next bits are going to be uncomfortable for you, Shinji," Max said with a bit of unease, "considering they're a part of your personal history as well."

"Th-they are?" Shinji nervously asked.

"Very much so," Max affirmed as Kodama switched to the next slide. "2004: Evangelion Unit-01, now-fully built, undergoes a contact experiment for the first time. Acting as its test pilot-" The next Slide added more to Shinji's astonishment as he saw in it a woman in her late 20s wearing what looked to be the prototype of the plugsuit he'd worn in his first two Angel battles. "-Would be your mother, Dr. Yui Ikari. It was an event that you yourself bore witness to." The slide that accompanied Max's words brought back a number of memories to Shinji, as he saw his then 4-year-old self in the control room with his father, Fuyutsuki, and Naoko Akagi. "On initiating the experiment, things went wrong and as a consequence..." Max let out a weary sigh before he continued. "...Your mother disappeared-vanished without a trace."

Just like that, it all came back to Shinji-the panic in the control room, evident in the concerned and frightened voices surrounding him as he heard his mother's screaming over the comm system, all while Fuyutsuki yelled for someone to get Shinji out of the room while he heard his father shout his mother's name in anguish...

Shinji shook his head quickly, massaging his temples a second afterwards. "Well, that's eleven years' worth of memory repression down the drain..." he muttered to himself.

"Again, my apologies," Max reiterated. "But sometimes, the band-aid's got to be ripped off. Believe it or not, this wouldn't be the last time a contact experiment went awry."

Shinji grew mildly aghast at this. "It happened again?!"

Barbara Ann nodded in response. "Some months following the incident, at Gehirn's Third Branch in Berlin, Germany, a contact experiment took place with the Evangelion Unit they were building, Unit-02, spearheaded by Dr. Kyoko Zeppelin Sohryu. She and her team went to great lengths to learn from what happened with Unit-01 and created a number of safety protocols to ensure a successful activation. Like your mother, Dr. Sohryu volunteered to be the test pilot. Sure enough, the safety protocols didn't fully work, and Dr. Sohryu was greatly affected by the test." She let out a weary sigh before continuing. "According to the medical files we were able to get ahold of, Dr. Sohryu's psyche became fractured by the experience, and she was committed to a mental institution, where sometime during the following year, she...took her own life."

Max walked up beside his wife and held her, while Kodama somberly turned away for a moment and Shinji's jaw hung agape in shock. Max, after giving Barbara Ann a moment to recompose herself, picked up the thread from there. "Eventually, they were able to work out whatever problems were in the weapon, and soon it and Unit-01 could be properly tested and finalized. Then, in 2010, Gehirn reached a significant milestone when Naoko Akagi completed work on the MAGI supercomputer. Another moment of triumph for Gehirn, however, would again be marred by tragedy-at this time, we don't know the circumstances, but after her work was finished, Akagi also unexpectedly took her own life by jumping off of the MAGI console to the level below."

Shinji's shock was compounded upon hearing this. "That-that's horrible..." he said grimly. No wonder the Dr. Akagi he knew seemed so embittered and cold...

"Shortly after Akagi's passing," Barbara Ann said, "SEELE restructured Gehirn yet again, this time into the agency you're more familiar with now: NERV. The central branch in Japan would move fully out of their surface-level offices and into the then-newly-completed headquarters located in the Geofront."

Shinji looked down as he took in what he'd learned, before asking a question that had been on his mind ever since he'd come here. "So...where do I fit, in all this?"

Max and Barbara Ann looked to one another for a moment, before addressing the teenager as they steeled themselves to make a rather unique offer. "Simply put," Max began, "we, and those in our line of work, think there's more to NERV than what's let on-we believe that whatever SEELE's plans for the world are, NERV plays a key role. The fact that they covered up the true cause of Second Impact, along with the circumstances behind your mother's disappearance, Dr. Sohryu's descent into madness, and Naoko Akagi's demise, all point to something sinister afoot. Our best bet to find out why is for someone on the inside to help us get all the evidence we need to fully expose SEELE to the world-and that inside man, Shinji..." Max pointed at him with a very indicative finger, for added dramatic effect. "...is you."

Shinji, at that point, reached his full shock threshold on hearing him; this, in turn, caused him to break into a bit of mildly hysterical, skeptical laughter for a good five minutes, before he recollected himself enough to give a response. "A-heh, ha, ha-oh, that's a good one, really-I just, it's just that, for a minute there, it sounded like you were asking me to spy on NERV for you. Ah hah...!" He took another look at the Smarts and Kodama, their expressions making it clear that they meant it. "...You're not kidding, are you?" he said with a hint of resignation in his voice.

"We're quite serious," Kodama affirmed. "You're our best shot at bringing down one of, if not the most, insidious conspiracies in human history. As an EVA pilot, you're practically untouchable given how much NERV's invested in you-that and, as far as anyone knows, you're the only one who can truly pilot Unit-01 for them. Plus, given the reputation you've already cultivated among NERV's personnel, not to mention those who you've made contact with outside NERV, and you'd be the least likely suspect. Besides, NERV's intelligence division is already so preoccupied with sniffing out moles in their organization from other countries that they'd overlook you without a doubt." Kodama put a reassuring hand on his shoulder, to help calm him down as his anxiety began to build back up. "I know we're asking a lot of you, especially given what you'd just gone through in your first few months in Tokyo-3, but think of what's at stake here-after NERV's served its purpose, what do you think will be next? SEELE bankrolled the creation of some of the most powerful weapons around, do you think they'll just mothball them when all the giant monsters are gone? We can't let them get off for causing the very disaster that necessitated the creation of the Evangelions in the first place-they need to be brought to justice, for all the lives lost because of whatever ambitions drove them. Like your mother's."

Shinji considered Kodama's words and the weight they carried. Given what he'd just been informed of, he was beginning to reconsider his original move of running back to his former guardian and his old hometown. Yet part of him still remained hesitant, chiefly due to the enormity of the task being presented to him, and the responsibility it entailed, one as monumental as piloting the EVA.

Kodama sensed his hesitation, and decided to bring out the trump card. "If you need a bit more motivation, maybe getting the opportunity to get back at the architect of your life up till now should make it more interesting." She then walked over to the desk and pressed a button on the intercom. "Send them in," she spoke into it.

The doors to the office then opened, and in walked two lab coat-garbed young men in their early-to-mid-twenties. One was Asian-American and wore glasses, while the other was a slightly-husky Caucasian who had his hair slicked up and back.

"Shinji, these are two of the best gadgeteers and inventors to come out of CONTROL Academy in recent years," Kodama stated as she introduced the newcomers. "Mentored by the legendary Drs. Carlson and Steele themselves."

"Pleased to make your acquaintance," the bespectacled one said as he and Shinji shook hands. "Bruce Okamura, at your service."

"Lloyd Nathanson, nice to meet you," his compatriot greeted in turn as he shook Shinji's hand as well, before facing Kodama and the Smarts. "We have it ready, whenever you are."

It was then that Bruce took two objects from out of his pockets, both of which Shinji recognized immediately, to his great surprise. "My SDAT! And that's the tape that was inside!" He looked to Kodama for answers. "When did-?!"

"Bruce, Lloyd, and some of our lab guys brought your bag in from 99's car for inspection," Max answered. "She had a hunch about why you are the way you are, and wanted them to confirm it."

Bruce proceeded to elaborate on what Max had said. "We disassembled your player to examine its components, and while nothing turned up at first, it wasn't until we took a closer look at the tape that we hit paydirt."

Lloyd took the player and the tape and walked over to the little wheeled table they'd brought with them, which had a jack and a cord connected to a small speaker on top. "You ever hear of backmasking?" he asked Shinji.

"Um...yeah?" Shinji replied. "That thing where you record a hidden message on something and you can only hear it if you play the thing backwards. They do it with music all the time-I once heard about a Beatles song rumored to have such a message, or how America in the 80s got freaked out over supposed Satanic messages being hidden in heavy metal records."

"Well, believe it or not, this technique's been used in more than just music," Bruce said as Lloyd hooked up the SDAT and then put the tape inside. "Done right, it makes for an effective means of subliminal messaging-such as the case with the one who recorded the message we found on this tape. Had a clever way to ensure the message would get across without you even knowing-every time you listened to the tape's contents all the way and allowed the player to rewind it, the message would slide into your brain. And given how much you've probably listened to this tape over and over, the message got reinforced each time."

Lloyd pressed a button, and soon the tape was playing in reverse, though thanks to the apparatus on the table they brought in, the slow speed and sound-boosting function enabled the hidden message to be revealed at last. Shinji recognized the voice coming out of the speaker immediately.

"People are unkind. They seek nothing without expecting anything in return."

His father. Gendo Ikari.

"Only as long as you are useful will people interact with you. To them, you are a scoundrel, a coward."

Shinji felt his eyes widen as he heard his father's voice. His hands clenched and unclenched on reflex, though this time, it wasn't out of nervousness as usual.

"To them, you are dishonest, and weak."

Shinji couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Do not get attached to anyone, for they will only hurt you in the end, whether you are useful to them or not."

His hands finally stopped vacillating between clenched and unclenched, settling strictly into clenched.

"Keep everyone at arm's length. No good will come of anyone associating with a weakling like you. They cannot hurt you if you do not let them in."

It soon made sense to him-he'd unintentionally made himself into a total wallflower, thanks to his one escape from the world, one that had helped him for years. Only now, it turned out it had hurt him in the process as well, and he'd had no idea the entire time. And the one behind this...was his own father. Thinking more on it, he wouldn't be surprised if somehow, his father had arranged for what few friends he'd made over the years to move away by giving their parents jobs in another city or town (or worse). Wouldn't have been more surprising if he'd set him up with that old teacher as his guardian because the man was so emotionally distant and would only do the bare minimum as far as raising a child would go.

That clinched it for Shinji.

His own father had deliberately made sure his life would be as miserable and empty as possible. And that fact was making him downright furious.

Kodama, the Smarts, Bruce, and Lloyd soon grew a bit concerned when Shinji didn't utter a word the entire time the hidden message was being played. Lloyd waved a hand in front of Shinji's face, but got no response.

"Shinji? You all right?" Kodama asked, a hint of worry in her voice.

For a couple of minutes, not a sound came out of the boy, until he finally did reply. "...I'm fine," he said with an eerie calm. "Except right now, for once I've got a very strong need to really, really vent."

Kodama exchanged a look with the others briefly before refocusing on Shinji. "Say no more," she said with a reassuring look on her face. "All floors of HQ are equipped with a designated 'rage room'-let me show you." She then led Shinji, followed warily by the Smarts, Bruce, and Lloyd, to a room a few doors down from the office, the words "Rage Room #12" printed on a plaque attached to the door. "Here, if someone really needs to vent whatever frustration or anger they've got at the moment, they can just step inside and go to town on all manner of breakable objects for as long as they require. (And don't worry about the items in question, they're replaced each time for the next user.) Now then, which kind of bat would you like-wood, or aluminum?" she asked as she held out each respective bat towards Shinji.

Shinji briefly inspected each one before making his choice. "I'll take the aluminum-I don't want to ruin a nice piece of woodwork," he said as Kodama handed him the aluminum bat.

"All right," she replied. "Just step in, close the door, turn on the room's built-in cone of silence-that's the button next to the light switch-and let 'em have it."

"Thanks," Shinji said as he stepped inside and shut the door. A *click* was soon heard the moment he pressed the button next to the light switch.

Just then, both Bruce and Lloyd realized something. "Oh, boy..." Bruce uttered.

"What? What's wrong?" Kodama asked.

"We just remembered," Lloyd explained, "the cone of silence for this room's currently out of order-we hadn't finished the maintenance on it yet."

Kodama's eyes widened, as did those of the Smarts, when it dawned on them just what that revelation entailed. "Uh-oh..." she uttered before the sounds of destruction, un-muffled, could soon be heard emanating from the room as Shinji unleashed a string of invectives and vulgarities so raw, so full of fury, that the sound editing team on this production worked as fast as they could to make sure they were either rendered as unintelligible gibberish or *bleeped* out as much as possible, all while the boy completely went hog wild with the bat on the dishware, vases, lamps, and other objects present for him to take his newfound rage out on. Those outside the room winced, blushed, or otherwise stared slack-jawed at the spectacle that, while unseen, was enough to cause the door to the rage room to shake every time.

"...Wowsers," Max began to comment. "For such a shy and unassuming kid, he's got quite the potty mouth on him." Given what Shinji's life had been like up till now, he and the others could definitely understand how much he'd been holding it in all this time.

Finally, after several minutes, the room grew quiet, and then the door opened, revealing a panting Shinji, part of his shirt untucked and his hair mussed up a little, the bat he'd used now sporting a lot of scuffs and dings. After taking a few moments to settle down a bit, Shinji looked up at Kodama, the Smarts, and Bruce and Lloyd, a newfound determination in his eyes.

"I'm in," he said.

The others exchanged a brief and wary look, before addressing Shinji as Max walked up to him with a hand extended. "Happy to hear that," he said as Shinji took a firm grip on the older man's hand and shook it. "Welcome aboard...Agent 86."

To be continued...

Featuring:

Bruce - Alan Lee

Lloyd - Ben Pronsky

Gendo Ikari - Ty Burrell

**Author's Note(s)**

Sorry for the wait on this. Life, you know...

Dr. Carlson (played by Stacy Keach, Sr.) was a CONTROL scientist and inventor who supplied Max and 99 with a lot of their gadgets, such as, among other things, an umbrella rifle with a high-speed camera in its handle, and edible buttons. Dr. Steele (played by Ellen Weston) specialized in chemical formulas and worked undercover as a dancer and striptease artist.

Bruce's last name is a riff on that of his actor in the 2008 film, Masi Oka, while Lloyd's is a riff on his own actor's, Nate Torrence.

The Beatles song Shinji alludes to is "Revolution 9", from 1968's The Beatles (also known as The White Album). He also refers to a segment of the 1980s "Satanic panic" where various Christian groups in the U.S. alleged that Satanic messages were being backmasked into the music of a number of highly prominent rock groups, which led to a lot of protests that included the burning of such records, as well as many state and federal levels of government proposing anti-backmasking legislation.

Max's "Wowsers" is a nod to another famous role of his actor, Don Adams-that being the title protagonist of Inspector Gadget.