122PROLOGUE: THE MAD SCIENTIST AND THE BOY FROM THE END OF DAYS
SHORES OF OKINAWA, JAPAN
He lay there on the beach with his back against the sand and his face staring up at the calm blue sky. The gentle sound of the ocean's waves and a gentle breeze rustling his clothes was all that can be heard on the calm empty beach.
His name is Shinji Ikari.
Third Child.
Evangelion Pilot.
Student.
Hero.
Slayer of Angels.
Right now though all of those things were far from his mind, right now he's just enjoying the calm weather.
He thought back to how he arrived on this beach...to a time that felt like a dream..no, a nightmare.
He thought back to sitting all alone on another beach in a very different world in a very different time.
HHHHHHH
*Flashback*
He didn't know how long he sat on that sandy beach, seemingly staring out at the blood red sea that stretched as far as the eye can see.
He was alone now, the most alone any human has ever been.
Because of Third Impact.
Now all of humanity, except himself, had been rendered into the blood red sea of LCL that he was staring out at.
Realistically he may not even be human anymore. His hair was stark white now instead of the dark brown it used to be. His dark blue eyes now a bright red. Traits all similar to two people who he now knew were not human, Kaoru Nagisa and Rei Ayanami; although Kaoru's hair had been a light grey and Rei's had been a light blue he knew deep inside that he wasn't really human anymore.
In the moments immediately after Impact, his mind was broken, his will and his spirit was shattered. He didn't want to live anymore, why would he?
So he sat there and did all he could do now.
He thought.
About himself, about his father, about NERV and about the shit storm that was his life and for once in his life his brooding actually brought some positive results, he finally started to put his mind back together and get over the terrible things he had to live through.
That said he still wasn't happy so in between searching for clean water and food he roamed the ruble of NERV in search for something, anything to at least partly fix his mistake.
And his life continued that way for a few months.
Until SHE came to him one day as he sat on the beach and stared out at the red ocean that was humanity.
"Shinji-kun," he heard from behind him and he froze. He knew that voice anywhere, that quiet and calm and always composed tone, the angelic voice of Rey Ayanami. First Child of NERV, pilot to Evangelion Prototype Unit-00 and partial clone of his mother.
Who also has the soul of The Second Angel Lilith, the seed that brought life to humanity.
Whipping around he saw her. Pale white skin, piercing red eyes and light blue hair and he couldn't help but smile and cry tears of joy. He'd been alone for who knows how long now and to see a familiar face was almost too much for him.
"Hello Rei," he greeted with a smile to which she gave a small one of her own. He looked out to the sea, the remnant of humanity and sighed. "I messed up didn't I?"
"Is this not what you asked for, Shinji-kun?" She asked with her head slightly cocked to the side. Shinji just sighed a tired sigh, he's asked that same question to himself hundreds of times by now and eventually he did have an answer.
"Yes," he replied.
"Are you not happy?"
"No."
"Why?" And with that question he turned back to her, he knows the answer to that too.
"Because I made a mistake Rei," he answered with conviction. After all that time alone thinking and looking over both his own memories and the flashes of other people's memories during the brief moment of Third Impact he had come to terms with what he'd done.
Did he regret his decision? Of course, he still regrets a lot of what he did and didn't do. He regrets abandoning The Second Child, Asuka the pilot of Unit-02 and letting her get eviscerated by the Mass Produced Evangelions. He regretted not being better friends with her and with Rei. He regrets how Misato died for him when the Japanese Strategic Self Defense Force attacked NERV Headquarters. But he also now knows that crying about it and hating himself won't change anything.
And he also knew that it wasn't all his fault. Asuka could have been friendlier to him, more accepting. Misato shouldn't have ignored Asuka and himself in the later months of the war, when Asuka and Shinji were usually extremely stressed, in favor of dating and sleeping with Kaji. She was their guardian! And that was just the tip of the iceberg.
But that too he had come to deal with...well partially.
'Time heals all wounds,' he thought to himself. Oh he knew he wasn't perfectly ok but how can you be after accidentally ending the world as you know it?
"I see," responded the First Child as she looked slightly to the ground in thought before turning back to The Third Child and asking him a question. "What would you do to fix this? What price would you pay?"
"Anything," he instantly replied with no hesitation. He'd long acknowledged that a lot of what was his fault was because of him being a nervous wreck with no confidence and always hesitating. If he can fix this then he would pay any price.
Rei just smiled.
"You know who I am, don't you?" She asked.
"You're not Rei but Rei and Lilith now aren't you?" He asked although he already knew the answer. His inhuman senses telling and screaming at him that whatever the Rei in front of him was, it was not human.
"Yes," she confirmed. "Would you truly do anything? If I were to use my power to fix this world would you be willing to be alone again? To be away from Asuka and Misato? From your friends? From all the people you would sacrifice yourself for?"
"Yes I would," he replied with conviction.
She smiled and his world was bathed in light.
HHHHHHH
*Flashback Over*
He can't help but chuckle at the memory as he looked at the note that he found in his pocket when he first awoke.
Live and be happy. Thank you for teaching me how to smile.
-Rei Ayanami
'Sending me off to another world? Well I guess I am alone here in a way, I wouldn't know anyone,' he mused to himself.
He didn't know how or when Rei/Lilith slipped him the note but he didn't care. He didn't really care how she sent him…to wherever he is now either, after all the Angels tended to defy human logic on a regular basis.
Now he just wants to enjoy some peace in a world that isn't dead.
Eventually he heard somebody walking on the sand and he heard a female voice call out to him.
"Hi ~ Hi ~"
HHHHHHH
Tabane Shinonono is really excited as she walked down the beach. She'd placed a net of different sensors around her current hideout and they'd picked up a huge energy spike and curiosity soon overtook her and decided to see what it was herself.
'Think of what I might find!' She thought to herself, 'an alien! OOooh time traveller…'
Needless to say her mind was racing at thousands of miles an hour as she searched down the beach.
And then she saw him and for once she was speechless. Lying down in his back in front of her was a boy around her little sister's age wearing a white dress shirt and black trousers, a school uniform of sorts she assumed, and he either hadn't noticed her or just didn't care as he relaxed and took in the good weather. What caught her attention though were two things. The first was his hair; it was a bright white and didn't look natural. The second was the thing that lay on the sand beside him. It was an orb that looked to be made of some kind of opaque blood red crystal like material and was the size of an IS core.
Snapping herself out of her musings she decided to greet the anomaly in front of her.
"Hi ~ Hi ~!" She greeted the boy in front of her in her usual energetic tone which caused him to lean his head back to get a look at her.
And she noticed his eyes and was convinced she's made humanity's first contact with alien life.
'And without even going to explore space! Although it's strange that he looks mostly human,' she thought to herself.
His eyes were a bright red and while most people would've assumed the boy was an albino, most people are not THE genius Tabane Shinonono! She noted that his eyes had some kind of strange inhuman feel to them and she was sure that in low light conditions they would have some kind of glow to them and while his hair was white it didn't seem to be from a lack of pigmentation either.
"Hello," he greeted back with a small smile. The boy for his part was surprised that his first contact in this new world was a strange woman, in her mid-twenties he guessed, dressed in a blue and white vaguely maid like dress. Her hair was waist length and a pinkish-purple colour which had him guessing if that kind of hair colour was common in this version of earth. What really caught his attention though was on top of her head was a pair of mechanical looking bunny ears.
'Well it seems you've brought me to an interesting place Rei,' he mused to himself.
"What are you~?" She asked with her head cocked slightly to the side in a cute and vaguely Rei like gesture. He also noticed her ears move with the motion.
He had to think about the answer to that for a bit.
'Well she seems to know that I'm not exactly human. Should I tell her the truth?' He pondered to himself. And with a mental shrug decided to just wing it for now.
"A boy from another world," he replied and that caused the woman's eyes to widen and he could just see her excitement as her body and bunny ears started to bounce in place.
"I'm The Genius Tabane Shinonono!" She introduced to herself and he couldn't help but smile, the woman was just so full of energy and it was staring to rub off on him already.
"I'm Shinji Ikari, Slayer of Angels."
HHHHHHH
Tabane's Hideout, Japan
It had been a week since they've met and subsequently took in her mystery house mate. In all honesty she surprised herself when she asked him to stay with her, she didn't really care about anyone outside of her little sister Houki Shinonono, her best friend Chifuyu Orimura and her little brother Ichika Orimura but after their introductions she noticed something.
While he seemed calm and happy, and she knew it was genuine, she could see in his eyes hints of regret and loneliness, there was something else in his eyes that disturbed her but couldn't pin down exactly what it was….yet! She is a genius after all, she'll find out!
Not that that she regretted her decision mind you, having someone like Shinji (or as she nicknamed him Shi-kun) stay with you who can cook on a level that would make less experienced chefs weep in embarrassment was a pleasant surprise.
'And he's slowly getting better!'
Truthfully she'd thought of introducing him to Chifuyu and while he may be 10 years younger he was nice and mature for his age and of course his cooking was damn good but eventually decided against it…for now.
He seemed to be full of surprises and he intrigued her to no end. For one he was only 14 years old but seemed to be plenty capable living by himself if he so chose. He seemed to also carry some kind of ability to change his appearance as once she told him she was wanted because of one of her inventions he turned his hair into a dark brown and his eyes into a dark blue before they left the beach, to attract less attention he said.
After they arrived at her lab/hideout/home she decided to let him have some time to acclimatize himself before she would bombard him question, something she decided to do after finishing the breakfast he's currently making. He was surprised by the existence of Infinite Stratos, the powered exoskeletons of her creation and the fact that only women could pilot them led to women becoming more important socially than men.
His reaction led her to the hypothesis that he either came from an alternate reality or a world almost identical in history and evolution to earth. She tossed time traveler out the window when he was surprised by by the lack of certain historic events that didn't seem to happen in this universe. She confirmed this when he asked about a 'Second Impact' which was some kind of catastrophic, almost extinction level event that happened on the 13th of September in the year 2000.
'OOooh I'm looking forward to this breakfast! First Shi-kun is a good cook! And then I can interview him!' She thought to herself as her housemate walked over with breakfast in hand.
"Itadakimasu"
HHHHHHH
After finishing their meal Shinji cleaned up and started to wash the dishes, Tabane-san had told him that she had a robot that she made to do that but he'd insisted on it. He didn't do much over the past week other than learning the history of this new world of his and lazing around with his older housemate.
Not that he's complaining mind you, this reminded him a lot of staying with Misato before Asuka came over except that Tabane had machines to clean up for her and Misato…well was a slob through and through. Tabane also didn't drink and had an infectiously cheery attitude most of the time, all in all it had been the happiest week he's had…in a long long time. Hell in his whole life probably.
Currently Tabane was standing behind him leaning on the fridge with a small notebook laptop cradled on her left arm while using her right to type into it. He knew she was curious about him, he heard her wondering why he introduced himself as a 'Slayer of Angels' once when she was walking to her lab. He didn't mind, from what she'd told him she was a genius and he believed her too.
It was nice of her to let him get his feet on the ground, so to speak, first though.
"So Shi-kun tell me about yourself?" She asked in her usual energetic tone, he couldn't see her though as his back was turned as he did the dishes, he really went all out with their dinner the night before and would probably be stuck at the sink for a couple of hours.
"Hmm," he hummed to himself, where to begin? "You have to tell be a bit more specific Tabane-san," he told her, time to think about himself aside he's still as shy as ever and still not used to talking about himself.
"Well are you an alien?" She asked and he could hear her bouncing with energy on the spot.
Wow to the point right away.
"No not really," he admitted with a chuckle. "I'm from…another earth I guess you could say."
"An alternate reality?"
"Yup"
"Hmmm," she hummed to herself, "well remember the blood sample I took?"
"I do," how could he not? He hated needles, all the poking and prodding NERV did to him only made that worse. Also he was personally interested in the results, he knew he wasn't human but he knew he wasn't a full Angel like Rei/Lilith either.
"Well the blood sample said your 100% human," she told him and he froze for a second in surprise. She didn't miss it either, "Shi-kun?"
"Well I know I was human," he admitted, "my hair used to be dark brown naturally like now and same with my eyes, they used to be the same dark blue colour they are now."
"But now you're forcing them aren't you? It has something to do with…what did you say when we first met?...a 'Slayer of Angels' doesn't it Shi-kun?"
'She is a genius,' he thought to himself and nodded stiffly. He knew the topic of the Angels would come up and by extent the Angel Wars and while he trusted her enough to tell her but didn't know if he could tell her. It's still a sore topic from him, the wounds from those horrors were still fresh and just now starting to close.
And then he thought of something.
"Tabane-san," he said as he dried his hands and turned around.
"Yes Shi-kun?" She could see it on his face, something she hasn't seen on his face before. Pain. This was a very painful topic for him and she slightly regretted bringing it up. In the week they've been living together the young anomaly had grown on her and viewed him in a similar way to a younger brother of sorts. And she did NOT want to see that look on his face again.
"I think I can show you my memories directly," he tells her and he chuckled at her reaction, she was obviously interested with sparkles in her eyes and her bunny ears perked up.
'Seriously how do they do that?' He asked himself.
"Do you trust me?" He asked.
"Of course," she responded.
So he walked up to her gently held her head with both his hands and touched their foreheads together. Now that he knows what A.T. Fields are and how they work and using the knowledge of Third Impact in theory he should be able to share memories with her. During Impact the complete negation of humanity's A.T. Fields meant that the personal boundaries stopped existing and all humanity became one. Hell he got flashes of other people's memories before he rejected Third Impact.
Angels though could survive without an A.T. Field, combat proved that since after negating an Angel's Field the Evangelions still had to kill them. The thing is though Tabane just told him he has the body of a human...at least on a genetic level. But since he could feel his own inhumanity, hell he changed his own eye and hair colour, he knew he was more.
Did it have to do with his soul? Did impact change it to something similar to the Angels?
Well hopefully he won't turn to goo.
'Here goes nothing!'
HHHHHHH
*FLASH*
Tabane blinked a few times and she found herself in an environment she knew very well, it was a laboratory. She somehow knew that Shinji is sharing her memories with her and she felt touched, to be trusted this much by the young boy.
She shook her head, 'concentrate on what he's showing you Tabane!'
Looking around she noticed one wall was made of glass and she figured she was in an observation room of sorts. She knew where she was, thanks to Shinji's knowledge.
'This is one of…GEHIRN's laboratories in Japan,' she thought as she looked around.
"Mama!" she heard a small voice cry out and looking down to her right was the cute sight of a young Shinji Ikari smushing his face against the glass. Following his sight down through the glass and she saw a woman with short brown hair and emerald green eyes in a white form fitting suit that resembled a wet suit.
'His mother, Yui Ikari,' she thought to herself as she watched the woman step into a white capsule she knew was called an 'entry plug' which disappeared into a structure covered in a white tarp. She searched the background knowledge of his world Shinji's gave her through their link and found that the machine she was test piloting was called an Evangelion, and this one is the Test Type, named Unit-01.
'Is this similar to IS?' She wondered though taking note of the fact that the naming of these machines were nowhere near as creative as what different people call IS units.
"A-10 contact!" She heard a scientist call out.
'Direct neural interface? Impressive but risky.'
*WOOT! WOOT!*
Klaxons snaped her from her musings.
"MAMA! What's happening?!" She could hear the young version of her housemate call out in panic.
HHHHHHH
*GASP*
Tabane took a deep breath as Shinji walked her out of the kitchen and into the living room and onto a sofa. They were both breathing hard but for different reasons.
Shinji was so tired from concentrating that his hair was white and his eyes were red again as he couldn't concentrate on his own appearance at the moment. His little experiment really tired him out. He had to keep his A.T. Field down, concentrate on his individuality while concentrating on the specific memories to show her and a few memories to give her background knowledge such as Second Impact, world history, Adam and Lilith.
He had to be careful what to show her too. He decided to show her the initial activation of Unit-01 and his father's subsequent abandonment of him. He also showed when he was recalled to Tokyo-3 as a tool to pilot Unit-01 and the subsequent battle with the Third Angel Sachiel. He showed her the battle with Shamshel, Ramiel, Gaghiel, Israfel (both times), Sandalphon, Matarael, Sahaquiel, Leliel and Zeruel.
He left out Iruel as he and the pilots weren't really involved.
He was careful not to show the battle with Bardiel because he didn't want her to see anything that brutally violent and personally he didn't want to relive the feeling of tearing the infected Unit-03 apart either. Although he did give her the knowledge of the battle's out come.
Arael and Armisael also had negative emotions for him so he didn't show her them either just giving her knowledge of the outcome and effects.
Tabris…also known as his friend Kaoru Nagisa, the last Angel who also took human form and the first person to have loved him without asking for anything in return, needless to say he didn't show her that battle and just gave her knowledge of the outcome.
The JSSDF attack on NERV, Asuka's last stand against the Mass Produced Evangelions, her subsequent defeat and Third Impact…well again he just gave her a loose knowledge of events. He didn't want to scar her more than the battles with the Angels might have already by showing her exactly what happened.
Tabane was reeling from the sheer amount of information. She just witnessed humanity's last stand against monsters of, literally, biblical proportions. The Angels, beings of sheer will, who shaped their very existence with a thought. Who could take on armies and nuclear level firepower in stride.
'It does explain how he change his appearance though,' she thought, 'if he has the soul of an Angel then that would explain why he can change his appearance temporarily at will.'
She also now knew the young boy-no the young man she's currently living with was a soldier of sorts. That at an age younger than her little sister, who was at the time and is still currently enjoying a normal life in school, was forced to step into the Evangelions to face off against the harbingers of the end times.
And then there were the Evangelions or Evas themselves, 40 metre tall biomechanical constructs made to fight the Angels…and each one housing the soul of the pilot's mother. And that was a revelation, the soul was real! It actually existed!
'Although the fact that Shi-kun saw the 'death' of his mother and was the pilot of the monster that was her prison...how cruel,' she thought with a grimace.
Of course there was the Angels themselves, each battle was horrifying. It wasn't the same as the battles between IS that women in her world participate in, those were for sport. Each battle with an Angel was a frenetic and desperate struggle against an unpredictable enemy. And each pilot felt every hit.
'Speared through the cranium, limbs snapped, stabbed, cut, burned, blasted,' she had to shake her head at the thought of the sheer amount of injuries he's received, not felt, received as she knew while most of the time the damage wasn't transfered the pilots felt them as if they were real.
And sometimes they did manifest to painful results.
She also saw how the pilots suffered from, "phantom pain" which were caused by the confused neurons in the brain remembering the pain experienced in combat. It would explain when he seemed to stiffen in pain.
'I should have seen it sooner! Note, make or find medication to counter phantom pain episodes,' she made a mental note.
She also thanked him for not showing her certain battles and events, even with just the knowledge of the outcomes she was shocked from the sheer violence and horror that happened in his world. She hoped her world would never see anything even similar.
"Tabane-san, are you ok?" she heard him ask with obvious concern, seeing her sweating and panting.
"Shouldn't I be asking you that, Shi-kun?" She asked him with a sad smile and as she looked into his red eyes she could finally identify what she saw. It was the loss of innocence, the innocence she could see in her sister and Ichika's eyes weren't there, long burned out. He had the eyes of somebody who had seen and ran through the gauntlet of hell.
Who had seen REAL monsters.
Who had seen his world die.
She moved closer and hugged him, burying her face into his shoulder...to comfort him? To comfort herself? She didn't know, probably both.
And she cried.
For his lost innocence.
For his lost childhood.
And for the horrors he lived through.
Then she remembered the face of pain she saw earlier that day in the kitchen. The look of pain.
She did not want to see that face on him again.
EVER.
And from that moment on she swore to try to give him a happy life.
God knows he deserves it.
HHHHHHH
"SHIIII-KUUUuuuun!" He heard Tabane shout out from her lab and he couldn't but smile and shake his head. The woman was a never ending well of energy.
"I'm coming Tabane-nee!" He responded as he walked into her private lab.
Even after living with her for five months his older sister figure still amazed him with her energy and constantly cheerful personality.
"What do you think? Well? Well?" She asked bouncing with energy as she motioned at the machine she was standing beside.
It was an IS, his IS, how she managed to make an IS that can be piloted by a man he didn't know but he assumed that the core was the reason. It was a brand new core, the first one she'd made in years but this one is special. She used the red orb that he woke up with on the beach as a base, it was the core of his Eva, of Unit-01…or at least what was left.
The core was empty, he could tell, his mother wasn't in it anymore but that was fine with him. He's happy to know that his IS is just a machine and hoped she was at peace.
"I like it Tabane-nee," he replied with the smile. In front of him, keeling like a knight to its king, was his own personal machine. It was a nostalgic sight, she designed it with his Eva in mind and he couldn't help but smile even wider seeing the violet armor with neon green and black highlights. It's limbs were slimmer than a usual IS' and lacked any flashy wings which gave it a sleeker look than most IS units.
She could see his happiness and she smiled even more….somehow. "I knew you'd like it Shi-kun! It's a fourth generation unit! One of the most advanced in the world! Nothing but the best for my little Shi-kun when he goes to IS Academy!" She exclaimed as she glomped on to him.
He couldn't help but laugh at her antics as he tried to chastise her, "Tabane-nee, if I didn't have enhanced strength due to my Angel traits I would've fallen over!"
That was another thing she decided to do in their time living together, Shinji should go to IS Academy. Once they discovered that Unit-01's core could be used to make an IS he decided it would be a waste not to use his potential and going to IS Academy would be a good opportunity to make friends and continue his education, three birds one stone.
Although it took a whole lot of pouting and poking and prodding from Tabane to convince him to go once he realized he would be the only male in school. He just prayed he didn't meet anyone as pushy as Asuka, while he may have loved her and is ultimately glad to have known the fiery red-head, she was still hard to handle at times.
"Mou," she pouted but let go to continue her explanation. " fine I'll let go. *Ahem!* Anyway I've optimized it for general purpose combat so you should have no problem in combat at any range. I've also loaded your unit's inventory with approximations of your Evas weapons. Progressive Knives, Sonic Glaive, Smash Hawk, Counter Sword, Pallet Rifles, Sniper Rifle and a few special surprises!"
She listed the weapons with a manic grin, a grin Shinji shared. She really enjoyed developing the melee and "special" weapons as they were really different to what most IS units use. It also helped that Shinji also helped in their development, granted she had to put him through a crash course in engineering and programming but it was good bonding for the two.
He also proved to be a fast learner.
"I hope you plan on taking me with you young master?," a feminine voice called out.
Shinji pulled out his phone and smiled as he answered, "of course, we'll get you transferred to my IS in a few minutes Iruel."
She was his pet project for the last five months. A mix of his programming creativity, Tabane's genius, and some of the memories he grabbed from Dr. Ritsuko Akagi during Impact. According to Tabane she's the most advanced artificial intelligence in existence. There are some with more computing horse power but thanks to his use of some of the theory behind NERV's MAGI supercomputers, she's sentient. He would have gotten recognition for it for sure, a truly ALIVE artificial intelligence, the first ever.
But he didn't want to be wanted because of some super advanced invention like his sister is. He just wanted a cool A.I. companion like in some of the games Asuka used to play.
Needless to say she was proud of her Shi-kun when he revealed his finished project to her. When asked about the name he revealed that he named her after the Eleventh Angel, Iruel the Angel of Fear since that Angel mimicked a computer virus. It was also the only Angel none of the three pilots fought and therefore he had no animosity for it.
"So Shi-kun! For your IS, have a name picked out?" Tabane asked.
He smiled, oh he knew exactly what to name her.
NEXT ON BERSERKER: CHAPTER 1: A BOY IS PILOT?!
A/N:
Hey guys! So I noticed that there weren't any ISxEva stories that were alive so I decided to give it a go! And to all those wondering then yes, Ichika will still play a big part in events in this story but it will focus on the life and times of Shinji Ikari.
To any IS fans new to eva lore and are curious about the angel battles do not worry! Tabane is not going to be the only person Shinji will become close enough to trust and show his memories and she will see them in all their glory. So I'm gonna use that chance to go over the individual battles more clearly and also talk about the memories that Shinji hasn't shown off to Tabane.
And if you're a reader of mine already, from Toy Soldier, no that story is NOT dead. It is still my main focus but I've had a few ideas nag at me and since I'm having a tough time writing Chapter 2 of Toy Soldier I decided to write this and some other stuff while I work it out.
OK guys, peace out!