Gendo was then escorted to what he recognized as one of NERV's conference halls, which were rarely used but had been added on the layout of the base none the less. One of the soldiers prodded him into the hall, where against the far wall, he found awaiting for him the entire NERV bridge crew and other key personnel; the children included. He immediately spotted Fuyutsuki, a large frown quite obvious on his face. Major Katsuragi was there too, looking evermore like a motherly figure with his son and pilot Sohryu pressed against her in the crowd. Unlike him however, everyone else were in various state of wear, ranging from Lieutenant Ibuki's quite revealing negligee… to the Sohryu's rather plain hospital gown. It seems that they had all been snatched from their living quarters as they slept.
Only Fuyutsuki dared advance towards him. "They got you too I see…" he said.
In response, Gendo just gave him an annoyed look.
Then a thought struck him… wasn't pilot Sohryu suppose in a catatonic state?
He turned over to look at her, question ready to leave his mouth. However, his old mentor apparently already knew what he was thinking. "Apparently she didn't suffered mental trauma to the extent we had previously been led to believe. Though she really has been attacked psychologically by that Angel, the increased depression and eventual catatonic state were induced effects" his tone dripped with regret.
"She was drugged? How could that have gotten past the blood tests?"
"That, I do not know. But they definitely had some sort of antidote to awaken her"
Gendo regarded him closely "And you would know this because?"
If it had been from another man, Fuyutsuki would have found that remark insulting. But knowing Gendo as he did, Fuyutsuki knew that the man could not stand not being in total control, "The men who came to pick me up were also assigned to capture the 2nd child after they got me."
Without even a pause, Gendo pressed on to a different subject, "How many of them are in total?"
"Including the ones who aren't here guarding us…? I'd say an entire black ops division…"
"… an entire division…?"
Maya would have never dreamt that this could ever happen in her life. She felt violated by the way she found herself awoken in the middle of the night by mean-looking soldiers and dragged to NERV headquarters. It felt worse because her unfortunate choice of wardrobe for that night. Her skin crawled every time she noticed one of those soldiers checking her out.
When the Commander was brought in, she'd thought that the soldiers would just get it over quick… whatever it was that they wanted. Even though she didn't want to die anymore that the man next to her, she would rather it be quick and clean than anything else. But nothing had changed. The Commander joined the group, but there wasn't a single whisper from their captors, it seemed they were still waiting from someone.
Wait a minute… Where's Rei? Now that she though about it, she hadn't seen the 1st child yet.
She half expected Rei to be the next one brought in, but it she'd forgotten about someone else.
Ritsuko Akagi.
"Sempai!"
Ritsuko looked up to see the source of the voice, when she found it she tilted her head slightly and gave a small smile. "Maya…?" She answered. She looked pretty haggard, the result of days kept in solitary confinement. Maya then suddenly remembered what she was wearing and began blushing almost to the color of Unit-02, but it didn't stop her from attempting to make some sense of the situation, "Sempai! W… who are these people!? What do they want?"
Ritsuko let out a sign, "Maybe we should all ask the Commander… he knows all too well who they are"
"What do you mean? Commander?"
In the face of the accusing eyes in front of him, the Commander of NERV found himself unable to answer the simplest of questions. Ritsuko pressed on in a mocking tone, knowing that there was nothing he could do to her any more, "Yes Commander… what do I mean?"
It seemed that by now the whole conglomeration of NERV personnel were giving him their full attention. It wasn't hard to tell that there was a lot of hatred in their eyes. "I think it's about time you told them about SEELE… and Rei… 'Commander'…", this time it was from Misato, who decided to have a dig at him too.
"S…SEELE? A… Ayanami?", came a soft mumble from the still drowsy Asuka.
Gendo was hesitant to admit defeat, but he was far from stupid, realizing that it was now inevitable that the truth be revealed, "SEELE… is the organization which originally spawned NERV… we were… suppose to answer to them… but I had my only plans for NERV…"
"And you were prepared to take us all to hell with you because of those plans…", added Ritsuko.
Gendo decided to ignore her comment and kept going, "Rei… is a…"
"I am I"
The voice Gendo heard was firm and full of conviction, nothing like what his was sounding like right now. "Rei!" he realized. The soldiers, shaken by her sudden appearance, raised their guns and quickly rushed to surround her. Everyone present suddenly became all too aware of the growing glow, which surround Rei. At the same time see seemed to regard them as a nuisance, bugs to brushed aside with a brush of her hand.
An unfamiliar man stepped into the hall. He possessed Asian features but was quite taller than the average Asian. He stood at lest 2 meters, or around 7 foot. His age was impossible to determine exactly… possibly ranging from 20 to even 40.
"Ikari", his voice boomed, "You should tell your little puppet that if she tries any fancy use of her AT-field, we'd be forced to terminate her. As you probably will note, my men are positioned so that they will always have an open arc of fire, considering she can only deploy it in one direction."
Not to be intimidated so easily, Gendo countered his remark. "You should tell her that yourself, she will not take order from me anymore."
"Really..? Well then, must be in the blood, Yui never did take your orders very well…" the man replied with a smirk.
This time however, the Commander refrained from answering back, he was too busy sizing up his opponent.
Seeing that he was being ignored by Gendo, "Very well, let's see… Rei?"
"What?" she snapped at him.
"Hmmm that's not a very polite response from you…"
"If I wanted to, then I would have."
"Ha!… Ikari, it seems you creation has some humor after all!"
Seeing that no response was forth coming from either individuals, the man decided to make it clear to Rei and Gendo who exactly was in control.
"Ok, let me make this clear… Rei, if you use that AT-field of yours at anytime, then not only you're going to end up dead, but so will everybody else here. Although I would strongly suspect that for some reason you would gladly give your life to save them, I would ask you whether you could save them when you're dead."
To that, Rei had no answers. The dim glow, which surrounded her, began to fade.
"I trust I've made my point."
"Who are you?" The older Ikari asked.
The man stood there, contemplating his choices in answering his query, then he finally spoke, "I am the beginning."
Gendo looked at him, not understanding his answer entirely.
"I am the one who planned and schemed everything", he continued.
"You…"
"I am the one who brought the Dead Sea scrolls to the attention of Keel Lorez."
"The… old man sent you?"
"Not exactly… Since it is he who answers to me…"
"Impossible!" Gendo exclaimed, refusing to accept his total obliviousness to the critical facts currently being revealed to him.
"How old do you think I am Ikari? In my late 30's? In truth I am actually turning a hundred and twenty in only while. Amazing what they can do with cell regeneration technology nowadays ain't it. But it's still nothing compared with the ultimate prize of immortality."
"So you are willing to destroy the world to gain this?!" interrupted Misato.
The man, who had previously ignored pretty much everyone else except Gendo and Rei until now, turned his attention to Misato. The people who were standing next to her, seeing that, begun to back away from her.
" Major… I would refrain from attempting to use that gun if I were you."
The soldier around him aimed their barrels towards her, emphasizing his point. Reluctantly, Misato slowly withdrew her hand from behind her back, revealing the small colt he has concealed under her jacket. One of the soldiers approached her and relieved her of the weapon.
Before anyone could do anything, one of the soldiers stepped forth and grabbed Shinji, who in turn was forced to let go of Asuka. Hyuga reached over to catch the girl before she fell, Asuka's legs were not yet strong enough to support her.
Soldier brought him forth, shoving him roughly in front of their boss, "What do you want us to do with this one?"
"Oh, Ikari's son… Take care of him. He's an unstable factor in our plans, I don't want any trouble from him anytime in the future" he ordered nonchalantly.
"Yes sir."
"No!! Leave him alone you monsters!" cried Misato.
Driven by her instincts to protect Shinji, the Major charge the closest guard to her in a vain attempt to relieve him of his gun. Unfortunately for her, they were quite prepared for her reaction. The guard calmly shot her with his pistol. Misato was thrown backwards by the force of the round, she crumpled to the ground, crying out in agony whilst clutching her stomach where the bullet had entered.
"Misato!!"
Shinji attempted to move to her aid, but was held in place firmly by the much bigger soldier standing behind him. It did not however stop several of bridge crew to rush to her; this included Asuka, Rei, a more than distressed Hyuga, together with Ritsuko and a positively terrified Maya. The soldiers made no attempt to stop them, knowing that their prisoners were now aware of the consequences of a foolish action.
Having stopped to witness Misato's all too futile actions, the soldier standing next to Shinji turned his attention to his task at hand. He backed away from Shinji and drew his pistol placing it harshly on the boy's head.
Even though her stomach was burning from the pain, Misato still managed to catch this.
"No!! Stop…!!" she cried in futility.
"Shinji!!!" shouted Rei. Who was suddenly on the verge of breaking into tears, she looked as if she was about to do something unwise and quite unhealthy for the rest of them.
In the mean time, the 2nd child forced herself to lift her face up, a task which she found extremely stressful due to the drugs still running amok through her frail body. Upon seeing the look in Rei's eyes, Asuka realized that she was about to risk all of their lives to save Shinji. She knew exactly what the 1st Child was going through, as she admittedly felt it herself. However, there was nothing that she herself could do. Nothing at all…
Then all of a sudden, "Everyone stay away!!! Rei… don't."
The words had come from Shinji, who stood firm, strangely looking as if he was in control of the situation. Despite the pistol barrel rammed against the side of his head.
There was something about his words that puzzled Rei, they seemed to have a stunning effect on her. She could have so easily revealed her full powers to stop them. To do that would mean that she could have saved Shinji, if only for a while. But Shinji's words felt like they had an overwhelming finality to it.
"I'm sorry kid", came the only words from the solider.
"You will be", came his only reply.
Everyone from NERV turned away a faction of a second before the trigger was pulled, the sound of the bullet round became magnified for all those who had known Shinji, they felt sickened more than they had ever felt in their lives.
There was a long silence following the wet sound of the body hitting the ground. Most of the female personnel were sobbing quietly, cowering next to the walls into a sitting fetal position. Quite a few of the others were too shocked to do anything but breath. Not many dared to take a look at the body.
It fact it was only Asuka, Rei and Misato to be able to force themselves to look at him. It didn't take them long however, to quickly turn away before losing their lunch.
Not even the Commander would look at his fallen son.
"Ain't life a bitch eh Ikari? Coming all this way just to fail so miserably?" spoke the man as his paced around his captives, eyeing each and every one of them.
"Hmmm… well, the fact that we knew everything you were planning certainly didn't help your chances."
The comment seem to finally strike something in Gendo, "You… you knew my plans for instrumentally all along?"
"Oh hell" he replied, "We counted on it! It just made it a hell lot easier for us to predict your future actions and make sure that you would be able to bring forth our project with the minimum of hassles."
"… minimum of hassles?"
The man stopped and looked the Commander with incredulous eyes. Surprised that he hadn't already put two to two already.
"Oh poor Ikari… you still haven't figured it out have you? Your silly plan to reunite yourself with your wife… was but a fool's dream… it was never going to work even if you succeeded in wrestling control from SEELE…"
"What are you implying?"
" I merely stating the simple fact that you have never actually seen the true Dead Seas scrolls, you were given but an edited version… with a small additional hint about being able to reunite you with Yui written into it.
"Your acts are just as easy to predict as it was for us to organize that little 'accident' you're wife had."
Upon hearing that, Gendo suddenly whitened, "Impossible!… you… you caused the accident…?" he spluttered.
"Of coarse, she was starting to became a liability, and obviously her death served another purpose, which was to drive you straight into your determined quest as our puppet."
"You're lying."
"Blah! The problem with people today is that they want to only hear what they want to hear… Well… let's see… you always suspected that Dr Akagi had something to do with it, didn't you?"
Misato bent her head up towards Ritsuko, who was leaning over her.
"He means my mother, but I don't think even she'd do that", said Ritsuko.
"At would be correct Dr Ritsuko Akagi. Your mother, the late Dr Naoko Akagi didn't cause the event, but she knew about it beforehand none the less. She realized that we'd purged the active borderline safety protocols, though she kept it quiet, I wonder why?" the man said sarcastically.
Gendo turned to look at Ritsuko and then back at the man, somehow, it all sounded so right. There had always been a few things, which gnawed at him. The truth was this, and there was nothing he could do about it. The question of 'Why?' that had been running through the back of his mind ever since Yui's death had been finally answered. But for whatever reason, it didn't help with the pain.
"You bastards!!! I gave everything for instrumentality, I lost… everything, even my soul…" he growled.
"You should probably include your son in that too now, considering you're just as likely as getting him back as you would your wife."
"Damn you to hell!!"
"Hmph… you have no one else to blame but your gullibility."
All of a sudden, a scream reverberated across the room. Everyone immediately turned to find the source. It turned out, that the one responsible was Asuka of all the people. Many of them also soon became aware of the object of her attention and most joined her with their own contributions.
Shinji, or Shinji's body was now standing upright, the neat hole on the side of his head where he was shot through was clearly visible. Shaken by the sight, the soldiers in the room simultaneously opened fired on him in reaction to their own shock. It was previous all to clear to their minds that dead bodies did not have the habit to get up. The screams were drowned out by the sound of several guns unleashing a hail of bullets towards the boy. The salvo shredding into flesh and bone, tearing apart the frail body, but which still refused to go down. After a short while the firing stopped, as the wielders of the guns realizing the futility of it.
"Now… if you're finished with that…" came from the bullet riddled figure.
The body was barely holding itself together, the voice itself was rasp due to the punctured lungs.
"W…what are you…?" asked the man.
"Shinji Ikari… the 3rd child…" was his answer.
"Impossible…!! You can't be human!"
"Quite a debatable question isn't it… I'm certainly more that you anyhow… Anyone who schemes and plans the death… of billions for their own selfish pursuit for immortality… is not human…"
"I see. Did you do this to your own son Ikari?" asked the man.
"I… I did nothing of the kind…" Gendo replied softly, forcing the words out through his own shock.
"He's right you know… he still doesn't understand why I'm still standing, much less do this to me…" stated Shinji, as a matter of fact.
"Then… what!?" the man demanded.
At that point Shinji seemed to ignore the man, his attention focused instead on Asuka. The 2nd Child in turn stared straight back at him, whimpering, and muttering something about this being all a nightmare.
"Asuka… I'd never thought you were a screamer…" he croaked.
The poor girl could only manage giving him quick glances to avoid feeling sicker than she already was, eventually though she managed to compose herself enough to speak, "S… Shinji? Y…you can't be…"
"Oh you'll understand later… I'm sorry for scaring you like that… How are you doing?"
"I… I've been better…"
"I see…" he said.
The body's head slowly turned slightly to face Misato.
"Misato… you can calm down now… you look like you're going to have a heart attack…"
"Are… are you like Rei?" the wounded woman asked.
"No… not quite… you're ok there?"
"Well, I won't be bleeding to death just yet…" she said. Forcing a grin, even though she was both terribly confused and terrified.
"Can you hang on for a short while?"
"S…shouldn't be a problem."
"How 'bout you Rei… you're ok?"
"I see now why you did not wish for me to save you" she said, the people who knew Rei were surprised to see a small smile which had crept on her face whilst they were all distracted with Shinji.
"There was nothing you needed to save… Well, of course there was the fact that if you did try… they would have killed all of us anyway... Rei… could you make sure the others are safe until I'm done?"
"I will Shinji-kun."
Shinji didn't reply to that, instead, he turned around to finally face the source all his woes. He begun giggling…
"What's so funny boy!?" the man demanded.
"Oh nothing much… only that for someone who apparently planned all this… you don't even know that you're already dead…"
Before anyone could say anything else, a massive purple hand tore through the walls as if they were but sheets of paper, two of the armed men were instantly crushed whilst the others tried to get clear. Before she knew it, Misato found herself dragged away along side Asuka by none other than Rei. Was Rei really that strong? She wondered. Hyuga and Aoba were also hauling both the stunned Ritsuko and Maya to safety, the task made more difficult due to Maya's uncooperative status, as she had apparently previously fainted at the sight of Shinji raising from the dead. Without a single word, all NERV personnel present with the exception of the Commander, quickly followed them to the other side of the hall.
"Shoot them! Shoot them now!!!" cried the man in vain.
Just as before, another arm smashed through the wall, this time right into the path of the SEELE men's line of fire. Several machineguns fired a torrent of shells towards the cowering NERV personnel but they all were blocked by the familiar phase-shift space of an AT field radiating from Unit-01's arm.
"You know of… the incident after I defeated the 14th angel?" ask Shinji.
"Y…your absorption into Unit-01? That can explain… your control over it… but it does not explain… why you are not d…dead…" the man managed, his composure shattered, nothing like he was only a few minutes ago.
"Oh but it does… you see… My father is not the only puppeteer in our family…"
Shinji seemed to gloat over the man, finally seeing what could be an end to the nightmare that was this world was becoming. He sniggered as much as a dead body could for a while until he concluded, with his rasping voice…
"This body is but an empty shell… a puppet. I never left Eva…"
He turned to face the solider that had previously executed him. Who seemed like he was going to lose control over his bladder any moment now.
"I told you'd be sorry…"
THE END?
*Author's Notes*
This fic was inspired by Peter F. Hamilton's short story; 'Sonnie's Edge'.
There will probably be a small epilogue to this story in the future, though, this short fic should be considered as finished on it's own. It's just a 'what if' scenario I thought up, though the inclusion of the nameless man was just there to focus the 'bad side' at one target, face to face. This fic was never meant to be accurate in terms of the story-line of NGE, and should not be considered as such, therefore take note that I took some liberty in changing a few details. And yes, I know… Shinji is wayyyyy out of character (you would be too if you 'were one' with an Eva).
