Shiro Tokita has a Weird Visitor (Evangelion Fanfic, Canon Character Protagonist, OG Eva + Rebuilds

Shiro Tokita has a Weird Visitor (Evangelion Fanfic, Canon Character Protagonist, OG Eva + Rebuilds Crossover)

Chapter One

It took twelve hours for Shiro Tokita to figure out how to use this ‘smartphone’ and play with the apps on the silky soft touch screen. While anything sensitive was carefully password-locked, the fact that the date read 2042 was a dead giveaway that time travel was also a factor alongside multiversal travel.

Also, the fact that Ken’s phone had a family picture of an adult version of Shinji Ikari, the Pilot of the Evangelion that had gone berserk in Tokyo-3 just a week ago or so, along with a beautiful bespectacled woman with a body calculated to excite men’s base urges who was the one who got together with him in another universe, just handed him a powerful clue that could be used to blackmail the wannabe intriguer and show him what real manipulation was like.

Now all he had to do was figure out how to record these images and pictures onto his computer and then into a floppy disk and -

The phone rang. Shiro Tokita had learned how calls on this device worked and deactivated the speakerphone before placing it against his ear and saying with the slightest smug emphasis, “Greetings, Ikari, whatever generation you are -”

It was neither Ken nor Adult Shinji who answered, but a woman whose delightfully cheery tone masked a shark’s sharpness underneath.

“Greetings, Executive Tokita! I trust my son has left you feeling secure and good about yourself?” there was a hidden menace in the tone, one that pierced through his complacency regarding the threat women could pose to him.

“You can’t pretend that him leaving his super-tech device behind was some sort of plan, Mrs. Ikari; a rookie mistake like that has gotten interns older and more experienced than he fired,” Shiro made the bad decision to tough it out, realizing that he had chosen poorly only when he had blurted out the damning words.

“I’m taking the phone away, then,” was the response. “And no matter how much of its contents you memorized, you’ll never have the key to defeating NERV - And SEELE - ever again.”

“Wait!” he blurted out faster than he normally would, “Let’s not be hasty; your son has a vested interest in preventing SEELE and NERV’s ‘Human Instrumentality Project’, right? Why not indulge him?”

Note to self. Do not provoke a woman who can take away your ticket to victory. Especially as she’s psychotic enough not to care about universes not her own.

Something in what he thought was hypocritical, wrong, and prejudiced, but he’d address that later. Right now, he needed that vital key to getting one up on NERV (and saving Humanity, obviously).

A low chuckle followed as the woman said, “You’re lucky he needs to learn more about the world. So why don’t I send him to you again, with my husband’s agreement this time? You get a new intern and he learns to be less overconfident about his capabilities.”

His response was, “I suppose I do most of the legwork of passing him off as a relative, or just some random war orphan of prodigious talent I picked up?”

“Affirmative,” was Mrs. Ikari’s answer. “In exchange, I’ll keep his father off your back and even send a care package with Ken that can help with your ‘Jet Alone’ Project. As it is, Instrumentality needs to be stopped in your world for the Multiverse to be saved; that’s a free hint.”

Shiro Tokita, again, was not blind. He was arrogant and overconfident, but he grasped the full implications of that statement and how that gave him a stake and a hand to play in this set of intrigues. So his response was, “How did I fail in your world? Or are the details of that a part of the ‘care package’?”

Another low chuckle, one of satisfaction rather than scorn, as this mysterious woman said, “The fact that you can grasp the possibility of failure puts you above the rest of the potential partners this world offers. Of all the talented, intelligent, and driven people we could approach, you stood out as someone who can accept when you are wrong even as you got many things right in hindsight. Just curb the sexist attitude and we’ll be able to work together, okay?”

Maybe he should do what she said, however much he bridled at it. But first…

“So, I’ll need your son’s biometrics if he’s to have a legal existence in this universe,” Shiro Tokita said. “I’ll pass him off as a relative of mine who’s also a war orphan, but to do that, I’ll need height, weight, blood type, and any allergies.”

The smartphone beeped, as Mrs. Ikari said, “Check the Messages App; there’s a complete medical sheet. Once you check it out, I’ll end this call; I need to talk to my husband - He’ll need my assurances if Ken is to be teleported into your penthouse.”

Do not ask what the limits of their teleportation technology are, Shiro Tokita told himself. Curiosity killed the cat, after all. And would it hurt to listen to their implied criticism?

He was no fool; if NERV had prevailed against JHCI in their confrontation - Or will prevail - Then he must have done something that screwed his project over. So best to begin work on making fake documents; he’ll clear his schedule to have the time to do so…

------

When the boy - Ken Illustrious Ikari, right? - teleported again into the living room, Shiro had already prepared a pair of sushi platters and two glasses of tea for the both of them, complete with chopsticks.

This time, the boy was acting more his age when he said, “Oh, hey, sushi!” before muttering the usual “Thanks for the Food!” and starting to eat.

“So,” Shiro said as he ate slowly, “You’ll be staying with me for a while; I’ve already had the guest room prepared - I’m passing you off as a recently found relative who’s also a war orphan, and who is being homeschooled until he catches up to the optimal academic level for kids his age. As it is summer vacation in your world, it would not interfere with your actual schooling, right?”

Ken nodded and said, “Yes. Thank you for taking me in; I’ll share the care package shortly - It took a lot of pleading and fast-talking to allow the transference of more technology from my universe to yours.”

Shiro Tokita nodded at that, restraining a mix of curiosity and greed as he noticed a small, very thin laptop lying beside Ken with a wireless mouse - What he would give for the secrets of that! - attached. So he asked, “Are we going to watch how I lose in your universe, then? And can that machine fit floppy disks?”

Ken chuckled, “Oh… we’ve advanced beyond those; I’ll give a demonstration once the food is done.”

------

One viewing, of a video, on the small laptop later, the JHCI Executive couldn’t help but frown as he said, “So… NERV sabotaged the Jet Alone project in your universe or a previous ‘time loop’ of your universe. And if what you say about SEELE is true, they can potentially do so here and might already be making plans for that.”

He didn’t like how he looked in that video/episode, where despite making several valid points about the Evangelions being out of control, he had failed to consider the possibility of human versus human sabotage and the further potential for Jet Alone to be used in conflicts between Humans.

That was a genuine failure. One he can admit to himself.

He thought of a plan, “If we announce the Anti-L System and its Evangelion and Angel-repelling barrier, that will put a target on our backs. If I act like a smug, sexist asshole at the same time, that will make them relish screwing us over.”

Mari - Ken’s mother, Mrs. Ikari - had told him that his merit was that he was able to admit to being wrong; it was time to prove her right. So his next words were, “I hate to admit this, but if I humble myself and tone down the rhetoric against NERV and the Evangelion Units, I can open up a bit more leeway for us - Enough to sneak in the Anti-L System into the Jet Alone prototype. The best scenario would be for them to let us deploy the Jet Alones alongside the Evangelions, then deploy the Anti-L Systems at the optimal moment. Alternatively… There is another plan that does not require me to be more humble, at least for now.”

His mind quickly went to assess the data Ken had provided, “One of Ms. Akagi’s objections to the Jet Alone is that it's a remotely controlled unit with a Nuclear Fission reactor. I despise the use of child soldiers to pilot mechs for practical and moral reasons, but I will admit that remotely-controlled machines are more vulnerable to sabotage plus attaching a Fission Reactor to a machine made for close-quarters combat was not the best idea… Good thing one of the components of your ‘Care Package’ is a relatively clean Fusion Reactor.”

Shiro Tokita smirked, “I have a new plan. You’ll like it, but your ‘Aunt Asuka’ won’t…”

 

Shiro Tokita has a Weird Visitor (Evangelion Fanfic, Canon Character Protagonist, OG Eva + Rebuilds Crossover)

Prologue

Shiro Tokita was having a good day.

Spoiler

One of the newest executives in Japan Heavy Chemical Industries, which in turn was one of the largest multinationals to survive the catastrophe known as Second Impact, the man was at the top of his career.

What were the reasons for that? Well, he had gained the backing not just of the company board, but also several investors for his pet project: the Jet Alone series of giant robots. Nuclear-powered machines built of metal and human ingenuity, no need for esoteric concepts such as the 'Human Heart' and Living Mechs of dubious stock piloted by children. NERV had reigned for too long, diverted too many resources to their self-indulgent projects, and what was the result? An entire district of Tokyo-3 had been sacrificed to defeat just one 'Angel'.

As his chauffeur drove his limousine to his penthouse in Tokyo-2, close to the real center of power in Japan's political life, he felt satisfied with himself and how in just a few months, he was going to humiliate NERV and prove to the rest of the UN that the world didn't need those pricks at the head of their defense.

His glow of self-confidence, which some might mistake as arrogance, lasted until he entered his luxury quarters and closed the door behind him, only to meet a flash of light that left behind a boy wearing a green jacket, which, along with his black hair and intense blue eyes, were the first things he noticed.

Spoiler: Hidden for Size

"Shiro Tokita, I presume?" the boy, clearly fourteen judging from his height and appearance, said to him. "forty-seven years of age, one of the executives of Japan Heavy Chemical Industries, and just recently-approved head of the 'Jet Alone' Project, which in turn is intended to put forward a giant robot of your design as an alternative to NERV's 'unreliable' Evangelion units, one of which according to your findings, diverts enough people to feed 20,000 people in the parts of the world still-devastated by Second Impact and the massive disorder that followed."

He smiled with confidence that echoed Shiro's earlier arrogance, but the latter was already trying to rationalize what exactly was happening, trying to come to a conclusion that made sense.

"This... This is a practical joke, right?" the man chuckled weakly before shouting in a shaky voice that betrayed his failure to convince himself of what he was saying, "Wait, no - You're a spy! Yeah, you're working for those NERV bastards!"

But the executive instinctively knew he was wrong even before the boy shook his head and said, "If that were the case, you'd be dead. No; I'm a fan of your work, and I have the last piece of information needed to make it a success. You know what I'm talking about, right?"

Shiro Tokita was no fool; he got into his position through merit, not nepotism, and he showed it by coming to the conclusion the boy wanted and saying in a firm, confident tone with just the right tinge of caustic sourness, "The AT-Field, NERV's secret weapon. You're telling me that you know how to replicate it."

He guessed right, as the boy pulled out a rectangular gadget, whose entire front was made of a smooth, soft screen with no equivalent in current communications tech - He should know, turned it on with a side button, and began touching the screen, scrolling through glossy icons with a swing of his fingers, before clicking on something called a ‘Projector App’.

The mystery kid then pointed his device at an unadorned side wall to place a larger version of the screen’s contents onto it, contents which included blueprints for a new piece of tech called an Anti-L Barrier, which additional text said can repel Evas and thus Angels - So there was a connection between the Evangelions and those Alien things?

This necessitated another question and an attempt to regain control of the situation as Shiro said, "Assuming that what you said is right and this isn't some sort of prank or a set-up, how can I trust you? You barge in here, expecting that fancy special effects and tech that by all rights should be in the realm of theory would overawe me, then offer me what I want after revealing your knowledge of confidential secrets. So tell me, why should I believe that you could be trusted?"

A slight look of shock passed through the boy's face, a crack in the attitude the kid had projected so far. Then the fourteen-year-old boy’s smile fell and he mumbled as it turned to a frown, "I... I thought you'd be surprised and shocked by the reveal and you'd be... overawed."

Shiro decided to throw the kid a bone now that he had regained control of the situation. So he complimented him, "Well, I was surprised by your show of genuine teleportation and your possession of what I see is super-tech; consumer technology that no one bothers to advance nowadays due to various countries’ focus on military tech and production plus most consumers taking a hit due to Second Impact and the wars after that. So I'm willing to listen to what you have to say; take a seat, Mr..."

"Ken," the boy introduced himself as he took a seat on the living room's sofa chair, leaving the main sofa for Shiro himself. "You may know me as Ken. As for what I have to say, well, it's a long story, but my smartphone has all the needed information - Let me project the contents of the next few recordings and files the device memory holds…"

------

Shiro Tokita could not believe his lack of disbelief in what he was being shown. NERV was doing what on the behalf of what to do what?! Ugh, it made his head hurt, and his next words were to summarize what exactly he had been told in hopes of making it less ridiculous.

"So NERV is acting under orders of a conspiracy named SEELE to use the Evangelions to defeat the 'Angels', whom they woke up so that they can use Angelic tech to merge all Human Souls into one entity and that will allegedly guarantee utopia," It all sounded ridiculous, and if not for the fact that 'Ken' had two cardboard bowls of popcorn directly teleported into his penthouse, he would have ridiculed the very idea and called the police.

Cheddar Cheese, Shiro thought as he chewed on the popcorn, watching the boy, who had changed seats to sit by his side, nod as though he was capable of dealing with this new world of intrigues on his own. Well, not entirely on his own, this insert had revealed that he had sought Shiro as an ally in rescuing 'this universe' - a telling set of terms - from the perils of 'Instrumentality'.

"Are you acting alone?" this was his next question, and Ken shook his head fast, before saying in response:

"Technically no. Dad will be angry if he finds out I used the Teleporter without his knowledge, though; I hoped to get your help and pass you the blueprints before he catches -"

His smartphone rang. The boy put it on speaker, and a voice, clearly an adult male's, called out, "Ken Illustrious Ikari, back to your Universe this instant!"

The boy gave a loud 'eep!', got up while holding his popcorn bowl, then bowed deeply in front of him before saying, "Sorry, Mr. Tokita - I have to go now! I'll try and get back as soon as possible with the relevant files, though; sorry!"

And he was teleported out in another flash of light.

If not for the remaining bowl of popcorn and the fact that Ken Illustrious Ikari (related to Nerv's 'Commander Ikari'?) had left his device behind, Shiro Tokita could almost believe it was just a dream...

 

Chapter Two

Shiro Tokita was having a good day for real this time.

He had managed to get people to accept the existence of ‘Ken Aizawa’, his miraculously-appeared war orphan nephew a few times removed, with only the minimum of fast-talking. He had also pushed through last-minute changes in the Jet Alone Project - Changes that some would see as a sudden break in the plan, and also out of character due to his backtracking on several ideas he had put forth as articles of faith, such as the need for ‘Jet Alone’ to be an unmanned, nuclear-powered vehicle used for close-quarters fighting.

What were the alterations, then? Well, it was best to keep it quiet, even in his mind lest his body language reveals it. What was important was that there was a plan at all.

A plan that required an actual, adult pilot, one with combat experience yet was not tied to a formal military force. A mercenary with links to JHCI and its affiliates and most importantly, him, personally.

He knew where to find such a person; the executive had not just survived, but thrived in the Post-Second Impact world, and that was because he took the initiative whenever the opportunity presented itself; that’s how Japan Heavy Chemical Industries had become a power in the first place.

Shiro Tokita just had to call in old debts.

So as he hopped into his luxury car once more, his new ward quietly by his side, he was in a bright enough mood to ask, “So, this is your first time in Tokyo-2?”

Ken nodded, before saying in a low voice, “Yes, but I’m no stranger to cities in general; I was born in…” He added the slightest pauses, one registerable only by someone straining his ears for it, “Some town in Southern Honshu; it was rebuilt.”

Plausible deniability, but also a hint that wherever you were born was a good place to live in your universe and time period, Shiro grasped the hint given to him. You come from a happy ending for this entire affair, haven’t you? Will such a happy ending be given to us if we play our cards right?

He pulled out a box of pocky sticks from his suit pocket, something he specifically bought for the boy, and offered one of the treats as the chauffeur began driving to their destination, then asked another question as his ‘ward’ eagerly took the sweet and began nibbling at it, “So, what prompted you to seek me out? We’re only distantly related, after all…”

The chauffeur was a paid employee and can thus be bribed by unsavory parties to pass on information to SELEE, NERV, or just rival corporations, so Shiro made sure to keep to his and Ken’s cover story even here.

“You were rich and I was desperate,” in-between small bites, the boy mumbled so convincingly that it was probably a technical truth. “Just before my parents died, they told me to go to you; they said you’d understand, that blood would call out to you no matter how thin it is…”

This kid knows how to be melodramatic, were the executive’s thoughts as he continued, “You know, kids like you usually shed tears at the thought of their parent’s deaths.”

Ken reacted with an angsty comment as he finished off the pocky stick, “I’ve cried so much that the tears have run out.”

Cute, but real trauma victims don’t act like that, Shiro Tokita thought. I wonder how cushy this kid had it and why he hopped into this situation anyway…

“So,” he ventured to ask once more, “What do you think about where we’re going?”

“The train station?” Ken asked. “We’re getting an exclusive luxury compartment, right? It’ll feel lonely, being alone, but it also means I can gorge on all the red bean mochi and sakura blossom chocolates I want! Or do you mean Shimabara?”

Yes, he meant Shimabara, where the Christian faith had received a major resurgence since Second Impact, and where several clergymen had objected quite vehemently to naming the alien enemy as ‘Angels’, preferring to call them ‘False Angels’ or ‘Fallen Angels’ or ‘Demons’.

About that, he had to ask…

“Why do you think Christian terms were used to name Aliens?” was his next question to his young ‘ward’. “You seem to know a lot for someone so young.”

He saw the boy bridle at the remark on his age and say, “It’s fancy and ‘exotic’ and yet relatable at the same time. But there have been a few conspiracy theories; I’ll discuss them later in the private car.”

And that was the end of that.

------

In the private car of the train came more revelations as the two sat facing each other, keeping some physical distance.

Among said revelation were that there was a mysterious set of ‘Dead Sea Scrolls’ SEELE kept that predicted the Angels’ arrival, that the Angels and Normal Humans were both descended from ‘Seeds’ sent out by a mysterious ‘First Ancestral Race’, and that Humanity was descended from the ‘Angel’ Lilith.

Shiro Tokita was not one to stay deadpan about these revelations, but nor was he the type to yell hysterically like a woma - No, best not to finish that thought - at every little bit of craziness. If he had an over-the-top reaction to every weird thing that happened to him, he’d be crazier than the infamous Bedlam Asylum from British History.

Nevertheless, he couldn’t help but react in a slightly raised, barbed tone, “And they teach you this sort of sensitive data in school?”

Ken shrugged off his attempt at being caustic and said, “Angels that are not Humanity and Evangelions got erased from existence anyway. By my father. After he grew up and took responsibility and, well… I don’t think the solution he used would work in this universe, so we’ll have to crush SEELE in a war.”

A pronounced “tch,” escaped Shiro Tokita’s lips at that. “Kid, I’ve seen war and death and famine all over the world in my time in JHCI - Don’t talk about it as though it is a game.”

He was surprised at how he was glaring at the boy, clenching his fists as hard enough his knuckles turned white. How dare he? Lecturing him about being a smug, sexist jerk when he hadn’t seen streets teeming with the broken and injured, calling out for the smallest hope of salvation. When he hadn’t seen people die from preventable diseases, from causes that required a wall of money and technology to keep away from the developed world. Men, women, and children were all degraded and reduced to the pitiful rabble in refugee camps and migrant caravans, forced to trade the last scraps of their dignity to survive another day.

The boy shrunk away a little, saying, “I’m sorry.”

Shiro Tokita was willing to accept the apology, but not before pressing on a little, “You should be.”

Silence followed for the rest of the trip.

-------

Shiro Tokita’s chauffeur was a spy; corporate espionage paid off when you were one of the people the privileged usually ignored.

He had been collecting information on the executive ever since the latter attained his position, and his fees had been raised when his employers had heard about the Jet Alone Project and raised further when last-minute changes had been made to said project and attempts were made to keep those discreet.

And now his fees were to be raised further again, as he had suspicions about the executive’s new ward to report.

But to who? He had more than one party who valued such information.

After some thought, he decided to go with the less mysterious and the more approachable (for a given value of ‘approachable’) one.

------

At the Sapporo-2 airport, where he was about to take a flight to Berlin, one Ryoji Kaji would receive an express package, one for his eyes only…

 

Chapter Three

Matteo Masuda was a veteran of the Post Second-Impact Wars at 28. As Second Impact hit in the year 2000 and the present day was 2015, that meant that there was a strong possibility that he had fought since his early teens in the chaotic period that broke out after that disaster shattered the past world order.

He had lost his childhood; parents, siblings, and home, back then. This blinded him to the wrongness of taking away others’. His life had been burdened by sin and due to strange feelings that were innately part of him, he cannot fully find solace in his God, and that’s all he wished to say about that even to himself.

So the former mercenary spent his days in Shimabara trying to atone, volunteering for charitable works, and contributing every bit of spare cash to those who still tried to rebuild the ruined world.

And in the apartment room that he lived in, where a statue of the Virgin Mary adorned the mantlepiece along with several icons and statuettes, he waited for the God he wasn’t sure he believed in to send an opportunity, a sign, that he can save as many lives as he took.

The letter from Shiro Tokita, the JHCI executive, saying that he wanted to see him for some ‘exclusive business’ might be just that.

Spoiler

Originally Seha Lee from Closers, now Matteo Masuda

------

“We’re here,” Shiro Tokita said to his ward before he rang the doorbell. “Fair warning, Ken, Matteo is… religious, so make sure to be circumspect about any opinions you may have about it.”

The door opened as Matteo, who looked much younger than 28, though not much younger, said, “I heard that,” in a gruff tone.

He then looked down at Ken, then back to Shiro, before asking, “Who’s the kid?”

“Oh,” Shiro said, “This is Ken Aizawa, a… distant relative. He’s also a war orphan.”

He was no fool; he made sure to deliberately include the delay just before ‘distant relative’ to indicate to Matteo that there was more to this business than met the eye. Matteo, having been a child soldier himself, looked at Ken, then him, with a suspicious glare before sighing and telling them to come in.

“Don’t touch anything,” Matteo said. “You two stay near the living room table until I cook food.”

Shiro saw Matteo give another glare at Ken - Had he really cast that big a shadow of suspicion on the boy? - before Matteo turned on the TV and left him and his ward alone to watch the news.

Ken turned up his nose as a newscaster reported a murder, before saying, “People still kill each other over something so petty as parking disputes?”

Shiro sighed and said, “That’s precisely why people kill each other over anything and everything, Ken. Before, it was only a small percentage of the population that committed crimes. Now it is much larger, even in our part of the world, because some people can’t handle the weight of past trauma and give up on ever building a better future once so many corpses have been piled up. You are lucky, Ken, to have come from a relatively safe place, some would even say saved.”

This was his hint at how Ken had come from a world that his father had restored to ‘normalcy’ if one can call having residual memories of partial Instrumentality normal. Shiro Tokita had already guessed that the implied low murder rate in Ken’s world came from the trauma of that, not from Humanity freely deciding to give peace a chance.

Ken must have learned when to change the topic to something that benefited him because the boy brazenly said, “Can you trust Mr. Masuda with our lives? More importantly, can he really be trained for what we - I mean, you - need?”

As the scent of fish stew wafted through the air from the apartment’s kitchenette, Shiro whispered, “Don’t talk about that. Wait for Matteo to tell us that he swept for bugs.”

He then took out Ken’s smartphone from his jacket pocket and said, “By the way, thanks for lending me this.”

The boy smiled and handed him an identical gadget, saying, “Mom and Dad wanted you to have your own; call it a fee for taking me in.”

Shiro looked wryly at his ‘ward’ before turning on the device and testing out the features, before texting Ken through the ‘Contacts’ App, This is great. I presume this is so that we can talk to each other in places where even the walls have ears?

Ken nodded, and typed, Yep. My parents wanted to throw you a bone, too. By the way, the files on your smartphone have a full account of just how my world got saved. Note that that folder is fingerprint-locked, so anyone else trying to read that will just find their phone ‘bricked’.

I see, he typed back. So, are you curious about Mr. Masuda?

I expected someone bulkier, you know, a more typical military or mercenary type, Ken responded, then continued, Btw, you two must go way back if you don’t think he’ll freak at the two of us typing stuff when we could just be talking.

“I’m closer to irritated,” Matteo’s voice broke in as the mercenary continued, “Lunch is ready; go to the dining room. Also, do not use electronics while eating; talk face to face like a real guardian and ward should.”

He then paused, then added with finality, “And I keep a bug-free set of rooms - Heck, I even spent a small fortune on soundproofed insulation, just in case. Even got special permits for it from the local councilmen… Or did I just bribe them?”

His relaxed posture and low chuckling, however, showed that he was joking about the bribery part.

------

“I met him when he was sixteen,” Shiro Tokita recounted as he, Ken, and Matteo sat around the small dining room table, “I was providing logistical support to a JSSDF-run mercy mission in Peru when I and my staff were captured by local rebels and held for ransom; it was Matteo’s unit which rescued us before they gave up on the ransom and just had us killed, and Matteo himself who got to me first.”

Matteo nodded and said, “You earned enough to buy my debt four years later and paid for my college on top of that. I am still grateful… But not enough to go up against the people who are fighting against the False Angels for free.”

Shiro nodded and stated, “So you’ve heard about that.”

The response was, “I keep my eyes and ears open. As for my price, tell me everything about that kid and those pieces of super-tech you guys were holding.” He then stared the JHCI executive in the eye and said, “And I mean everything.”

Shiro Tokita, a Japan Heavy Chemical Industries executive, knew how and when to use honesty as a weapon and make it clear he was both being honest and playing it up for an advantage. And so not only did he tell everything, but used his new smartphone to project pictures, text, and even the odd video that had survived Ken’s father’s restoration of his world (it was mostly humans and animals that were affected by his reversing Instrumentality), calculating each of the reveals for maximum shock.

“I knew I should I brought out the bottle of Bourbon!” Matteo blurted out after he had finished processing the reveals. He then continued, “Mr. Tokita, my debt to you does not mean that you can just shake my faith like that. It seems that these False Angels - Demons - are actually Aliens seeded by a ‘First Ancestral Race’ who have powers that should belong only to God. And apparently, they’re not even the true enemy, and it is NERV and their ‘SEELE’ paymasters who are. Damnit, why must we be plunged back to war?!”

If this had been Ken, Shiro Tokita would have asked why he was assuming that it would come to war. But from Matteo… He trusted the man enough to know that if he spoke of war being likely, then it was likely.

So he grits his teeth before saying, “So it will have to be war, then, barring a miracle.”

Ken looked at him, then Matteo, before saying, “I’ll try my best to secure one. To be honest, multiversal transport and communications have limits, and my world is largely demilitarized, but what we can give is knowledge of what can still happen and the secrets of the Anti-L System… As well as complete personnel files of my Grandfather - Well, to be pedantic, his Parallel Counterpart - And the members of NERV, plus the Eva Pilots, both current and potential.”

“Those are tools,” Matteo pointed out, “Tools are not the same as a plan. I know full well that you approached Mr. Tokita because the Jet Alone project can be easily repurposed against NERV, to attack it. You weren’t thinking about what if that ended up getting your father’s counterpart here killed. Or your Aunt Asuka’s.”

Ken recoiled at those statements before blurting out, “Well, it’s too late now - The Teleporter’s limits are that they’re ‘locked in’ to a single person’s biometrics -”

“Meaning that you can only teleport in the presence of a single person, namely me,” Shiro Tokita spoke. “Well, it means playing for the high stakes, then. If Project: LUXMAN can use the Anti-L System to eventually repel an Angel or Evangelion, then we get to topple NERV from its perch, giving us a greater advantage in war and allowing us to win swiftly and with the minimum of bloodshed.”

He then followed up with, “Assuming there are no curveballs to our own curveballs…”

No one knew at that time that there would be, or rather, they didn’t get that life still had surprises for them…

 

Chapter Four

Author's Note: Thanks to Bluepencil himself for filling in when my existing Beta Readers got busy; this meant a lot and probably saved my fic.

The Fifth Angel, Ramiel, had attacked Tokyo-3 and met its end by the entirety of Japan’s power grid feeding its electricity into a Positron Cannon developed by the JSSDF. Having prepared for this beforehand thanks to Ken’s information, Shiro Tokita had emergency power ready so that work on the Fusion Reactor going to be used for Project: LUXMAN could not only continue, but he can comfortably work, in a well-lit office, on making a case as to why funding should be given for the development and construction of a ‘Clean’ Fusion Reactor less prone to irradiate entire swathes of land if it melted down.

He just had to try and pass off Ken’s blueprints for both that and the Anti-L System as salvaged research from a company literally obliterated by Second Impact, thus meaning that JHCI can claim the blueprints as their own without being accused of patent infringement or corporate espionage.

It wasn’t likely that NERV will publicly reveal that Anti-L Systems and Fusion Reactors were tech they or their affiliates had been developing. No, they’d send an assassin instead.

And due to Matteo being trained as an adult pilot, he can only occasionally guard them and thus Shiro Tokita had to rely on his current security team and chauffeur - A state of affairs that cannot stand. When he had brought this up to Mattero, the response had been…

“My old unit. It exists. Hire it,” Yes, that worked; Matteo’s old mercenary unit could be brought over to JHCI as ‘private security’ for himself and the project - All it took was some string-pulling.

What bothered him was that he remembered said merc unit using child soldiers, children who should be in school instead of being handed dangerous weapons. Such behavior should not be tolerated in the developed world, where barbarity and violence were supposed to be caged by rules and consensus; not annihilated entirely because that was impossible, but where children at least had a chance to be saved.

Hmm, judging from recent reports, it seemed that Matteo’s old unit no longer used kids in combat, but kept on several soldiers who started out at a young age. Shiro felt that was dubious, but alas, he had no other options who won’t rat him and Ken out to SEELE and NERV.

“Your paperwork is all done, Mr. Tokita,” Ken said as the new intern walked up to him with a stack of papers neatly in hand. The boy seemed to be actually good at accounting, even a prodigy like he had implied he was in other fields. Shiro gave himself a slight grin as Ken set down the papers; how would the kid take it if it turned out that his ‘genius’ was in a field kids like him found boring?

“So…” his ward said in a slow, clear tone, “I worked with your secretary to clear your schedule for the interview with our new security team. Once Matteo is done with his remote simulator training, we can meet with his former comrades in two hours and fifteen minutes.”

“Do you really want to join us?” he had to ask. “You might get bored.”

The answer was, “I know. But with the Fifth Angel dead, I think we need to hurry.”

And Shiro remembered the stakes; this was a battle for Humanity’s right to exist as Humanity - If SEELE and NERV succeeded, then there won’t be children to worry about saving. So he said, “We will. But, Ken, can I ask a question?”

The boy nodded at that, and Shiro pressed on, “Why did you decide to help us? Not why people from your home decided to help us, but you, specifically. Your parents didn’t want you to get involved; I know that much.”

Ken tilted his head slightly, looking away from him for a while before deciding to answer, “There is another version of Dad here, but Mom does not exist. Mom… I love her, but she’s actually much older than Dad - She transferred her soul to a clone to get together with him, the son of her previous crush, and that’s creepy. But at the same time, Mom, for all her creepiness, did help Dad grow as a person and was instrumental to his victory over Grandfather. So… I wanted to see how a version of Dad, in a universe where Mom does not exist, can find happiness and pull off a win without her.”

Shiro raised an eyebrow and asked, “With your help, I presume?”

He saw the boy’s face cringe, before the latter answered, “Yes. I also wanted to meet you, who looked like you had a chance to throw off NERV’s plans for a moment. I liked the Jet Alone project - No, I admired it. You asked a question: What can a human do? And while the answer you got was ‘not much’, it was a brave question to ask.”

This made Shiro Tokita, executive of JHCI, smile. “I chose ‘Hope’ as the password for the Jet Alone for a reason. Because I genuinely believe in hope. Hope that things will be much better than they are right now.”

Ken blinked before his mouth opened wide and he exclaimed, “After all you and Matteo suffered? Also, you really do need to encrypt that password; your cybersecurity sucks.”

That required a blunt, “Yes, yes it did in your universe and past time loops. Here’s a bit of wisdom from your elders, Ken: There’s a time to lose hope and there’s a time when there isn’t. And when you don’t grasp when it's different or when it's the same, that’s when you lose.”

His own hope had been refilled by the talk, and so Shiro conceded, “Let’s go see our new security detail, yes?”

------

Spoiler

Originally Elsword from Elsword, fanart by someone named Arubeni, now Alonso Guttierez

“I see Old Man Lorenzo spoils you as always,” Matteo was the first to remark at his old friend (?)’s appearance. “To think he’d let you wear that awful uniform into an interview.”

Lorenzo Cervantes Amamiya was the leader of Matteo’s old mercenary unit, composed of people who had been denied a place in society because of mixed-race or illegitimate ancestry. Shiro Tokita had learned to respect him and them in the years after Second Impact, where they played an unsung role in helping the UN restore order.

Alonso replied, “Hey, one can say it's my trademark. But to be honest, I’ll change to a better one when on duty; there was… A dry-cleaning accident earlier.”

Shiro Tokita looked beyond Matteo and his ridiculous-looking friend and scanned the organized lines of paramilitary personnel, all wearing traditional security suits with ballistics vests underneath the silk, recognizing old faces from the Post-Second Impact wars. Faces he hoped not to see again, not because he hated the people behind them, but because he wished they’d just retire and live happier lives.

Nevertheless, he ventured to ask Alonso, asking the 28-year-old mercenary, “How is the old man doing, by the way? I presume that the reconstruction efforts in the Sierra Madre - The one in the Philippines - Are going well enough that people don’t bother him much?”

Alonso replied with a nod and a smile, before bowing a little, getting up, then adding, “They are; he sends you his thanks. He also says to give him videotapes of the next Giant Mecha versus False Angel fights as he’s a fan.”

“...I see,” Shiro Tokita didn’t quite know how to respond to that.

Alonso then looked at Ken and asked, “So, this boy is your new intern? You sure you wouldn’t get accused of nepotism as he’s your relative?”

“I’m taking care of him; he can’t be left home alone,” was the answer to that. “Anyway, you sure that you and the rest of Old Man Lorenzo’s unit can protect the project?”

The response to that was another nod, before Alonso said in an even tone, “Of course, Sir.”

------

Matteo returned to the simulator room to continue practicing while the latter changed into a normal suit. Then, free of distractions, the mercenary began a review of the place’s security arrangements.

It was only an hour before the latter returned to Shiro’s office and said, “Your cybersecurity sucks. Passwords are minimal strength, employees of dubious allegiance have access to secret files, and the project itself had a security breach a while back.”

He then turned to Ken and said, “They know about the Clean Fusion Reactor designs Mr. Tokita pulled out of thin air. Coincidentally around the same time he pulled you out of thin air as well. So it stands to reason that you might be a courier or patsy for whoever really developed a functioning Fusion Reactor and certain sub-systems and does not want to reveal themselves.”

Shiro saw the boy glare back at Alonso and say, “Mr. Tokita is a genius; he took the designs from a Company destroyed in Second Impact and completed them himself.”

Not very convincing, and this was confirmed when Alonso remarked, “I and Matteo have known him longer than you have; we both know that’s not true. Speaking of Matteo, with the time he’s been spending time in the simulator room you ordered installed; people have caught enough glimpses of what’s inside to know what Project: LUXMAN entails now. It’s too late to plug up the leaks; you’re lucky they have not found out about the so-called ‘Anti-L System’ they’ve installed yet.”

He was still looking at Ken when he said that.

At 28, Alonso is proving quite perceptive, Shiro Tokita thought. Time to pull out the ‘not in his paycheck’ card -

“Mr. Tokita,” Ken looked at him then, “Let’s discuss the security breach Mr. Guttierez talked about. I think we can use it to feed NERV false data and make them think they’ve won.”

Alonso nodded, turned away from the boy once more, and said, “Shiro, the kid’s suggestion is clever but I’ve already started to do it. That said, do make sure to pay attention to your company’s other executives and its shareholder base. Now that NERV knows you have access to Fusion Reactor technology, they’ll try other ways to undermine JHCI.”

Shiro nodded at that, realizing the implications.

“The fellow members of JHCI’s Executive Board will probably throw us under the bus at the drop of a hat…” he trailed off in a rueful tone. “I hate to admit this, but we need to keep an eye on them -”

Then a fire alarm blared across the building.

------

There was no fire, but there were signs that JHCI’s alarm systems had been hacked into. Alonso was ordering his folk to look into it ASAP and prevent any more occurrences, but Shiro couldn’t help but ask why their enemies would resort to such a juvenile prank.

Then it dawned on him.

“Alonso, call up Matteo in the simulator room,” he ordered, before looking at Ken and saying to the boy, “Ken, stay beside me at all times for the next few hours.”

His hunch was proven right when Alonso said, “Mr. Tokita, Matteo isn’t responding; the other folk in the simulator room said he was evacuating as per the fire drill but heard a few employees screaming anr rushed to help, but he hasn’t been back since.”

Shiro felt his heart sink down to his stomach as he realized that the enemy had resorted to kidnapping, and as Matteo was not in any way near Kozo Fuyutsuki’s level of importance, this meant that his employee, who was also his friend, was in danger of something unpleasant happening to him.

And neither he nor Ken can do anything.

------

Matteo’s eyes slowly opened as his body recovered from the sedative. He remembered the fire alarms blaring, some employees crying out for help, then nothing.

Damnit, he thought as he noticed he had been tied up and frisked of all weapons, including the sharp pin he kept in a hidden pocket. I asked to know too much. They’ll torture it out of me. I need to get away.

He was in what seemed to be a shed; it was mid-morning judging from the light that shone through the one small window. The door opened as two men clearly chosen for common, indistinguishable, even stereotypically thuggish faces entered the place, and one of them lit a cigarette, blew a noxious puff, and then said, “In this place, no one can hear you scream.”

 

Chapter Five

In Shiro Tokita’s office, Alonso took charge by saying, “We can’t go to the police if we’re right about who kidnapped Matteo. We’ll have to rescue him by ourselves.”

Shiro responded, “And how do we do that? Just take a group of mercenaries and shoot up Tokyo-2 or the countryside around it? We’ll be criminals if we do that.”

Ken cleared his throat and said, “I have - I mean, we have - contacts who can help, right, Mr. Tokita?”

Shiro saw that Ken was offering multiversal help in rescuing Matteo, even at the risk of revealing everything to Alonso. Not wanting to seem like a third wheel, even in an area where he didn’t know how he can help, he confirmed what Ken said with a nod before adding his own question.

“Now, how can I help? Surely you do not expect me to just sit here, right? You promised a partnership, not just you doing everything while I bow my head in despair,” Like I did in a past time loop in your own universe.

“Am I permitted to share my suspicions about Alonso, then?” Ken said. “And even my own speculation about Matteo - Don’t worry, I’m not accusing him of anything beyond being completely innocent… And marking this universe and timeline as more different from my own world and timelines than I expected.”

Alonso was glaring at the boy now, and Shiro himself wiped some sweat from his brow with a handkerchief before saying, “Get to the point, Ken. It’s quite clear what new revelation you just had is making you more obtuse.”

Ken sighed and said, “I assumed that Matteo was merely an individual who could have existed in my timeline, but was not important because, well, he wasn’t anywhere near Tokyo-3 or even Tokyo-2. But knowing more about his backstory as someone important to you and your personal development and Alonso’s old unit just being conveniently there, experienced in combat and some intrigue, and reliable enough to ask commonsense questions about cybersecurity that even NERV themselves fail to ask… Well, I think that Matteo and Alonso’s unit are complete natives to this universe; ‘Extracanonical’ beings who did not exist in the ‘original narrative’ yet can affect it.”

The boy then pursed his lips and said, “Or to put it in simple terms; they’re the Mari to your Shinji only they have a crush on each other instead of you.”

Alonso’s response to that was to deflect by saying, “Matteo’s Catholic, kid. He would never believe he sees me that way - He thinks it's a sin.”

Shiro pierced past the deflection and got to the heart of the topic, “So you believe that Matteo and Alonso are additions to what was supposed to be the same story as the ‘Original Evangelion Narrative’, additions that have the potential to make the course of events different. That’s another reason to rescue Matteo, but that does not answer the question as to how we can do so in the first place.”

Alonso surprised him by turning to Ken and saying, “How much have you guessed about me, Little Ikari? The plain and simple fact that you had mental defenses at all gave you away.”

Ken whirled at the older man and said, “Plenty. NOAH thinks it can preserve its independence from SEELE through psychic tricks barely above stage magic, manipulation of oil prices, and selling precious metals, gems, and antiquties on the black market. Oh, and hiring out its folk as mercenaries in hopes of finding fellow ‘Extracanonicals’ who are not visible in the Dead Sea Scrolls.”

Shiro’s smartphone beeped at that; Adult Shinji had sent him a file detailing what NOAH was - it was a coalition of Middle Eastern groups (which included the Reborn Order of Assassins, Knights Templar, and a group of Jewish Kabbalists known as the Lions of Maimonides who wanted ownership of the secret Dead Sea Scrolls back from SEELE) dedicated to keeping SEELE out of their region. They also had psychics who can control their AT-Fields to induce low-key effects such as body language reading, hypercharged empathy and memory, and in Alonso’s case, mind-reading through eye contact.

Note to self: Get contact lenses, he thought. All the while, it turned out he had missed Alsonso arguing back against Ken, who was now responding to that.

“Yes, of course, I can help your organization. I can also help you rescue Matteo - You may not believe it, but your love interest is my friend too,” Ken then took out his smartphone, “Now let me ask for authorization -”

Alonso raised his hand and said, “Save your trump cards for later as I’m rescuing Matteo myself - You need to guard your chosen partner-in-crime; put him in the center stage of the intrigues you involved him in.”

Time for him to speak up, “Ken, trust Alonso. I know you mean well, but I’ve known him longer than you - He can manage it.”

As Ken nodded, Shiro felt the need to give the two of them something to do, before saying to Alonso, “If you’re part of all this while Matteo isn’t, then Old Man Lorenzo - Old Man Amamiya - must know as well; he is not the type to allow in his ranks anyone who wants to use his company for someone else’s vaguely well-intentioned agenda unless he’s reviewed it first. And if he’s part of your ‘NOAH’ all along, well… I have an offer to make to them.”

Alonso added, “I understand; in the meantime, I’ll be going out; permission to take the company’s fastest motorcycle and a map of obscure roads through the countryside?”

Shiro Tokita nodded and said, “Make sure to avoid the police.”

And as Alonso left, Shiro began to make a few phone calls; he had some offers to make to a Middle Eastern Conspiracy that seemed to be getting too big for its britches like he had in another universe…

-------

These SEELE (?) guys knew how to cause pain without leaving a mark; Matteo knew that within minutes of the interrogation. They had access to some sort of super-pepper spray, more potent than usual, that clung to the cloth of his sleeves, collar, knees, and socks, making them feel like burning shackles.

The 28-year-old thought through the pain, Smells like Ghost Peppers. How very expensive, but not as expensive as Carolina Reapers.

His eyes teared up and closed; at least he had an excuse to let them do so - Crying from onions and peppers was normal. Crying because he was alone? A sign of weakness.

One of the men said through the darkness and the tears, “All right, Mr. Masuda; just tell us what we want and we’ll wash you down with saline to remove the spray before you go blind. Nod if you understand.”

Matteo shook his head vigorously, defying his captors. In response to this, he received a kick to the center of his stomach; hard enough to hurt but the bruise left can easily be claimed as from a minor accident.

"You know," said his interrogator, "You're quite loyal to your boss - How much of that is about how much he pays you and how much of that is because you know is what we want to ask. Now, tell us - How did he find out? How much does he know?"

Matteo refused to talk; he cannot risk revealing any of the secrets entrusted to him. Instead, he shook his head once more, and this time, instead of kicking him, his captors grabbed him and sprayed his armpits with ghost pepper juice, making sure to soak his suit.

He screamed, trashing against the ground like a serpent, crying, trying to resist the urge to give way.

Somehow, Matteo Masuda found the strength to endure. He was an Adult Pilot for JHCI in a world where children were the ones tasked, by an infinitely shadier organization, to drive machines of death. Someone who believed, even now, that there was a God who cared about them, that meaning in life and happiness that was not the same as pleasure existed. That there was such a thing as Divine Law.

A Divine Law that declares that your feelings are a sin? A Divine Law that has caused you to reject someone who genuinely loves you? You hurt Alonso when you pretended to see him only as your best friend, you know that?

“That’s lust, not love!” he blurted out through the pain, and he didn’t realize for several seconds that he had surprised his interrogators.

He was slapped across the face before he was hosed down with a saline solution (mixed with a bit of antacid) that washed away the ghost pepper spray while soaking his clothes, and him, to the bone.

When his vision cleared, it was to his captors having drawn knives, and one of them, who had the look of an Ex-Yakuza down to a missing pinky finger, “So, it seems that this guy is a…" Matteo ignored the slur after that, "This makes things interesting…”

Matteo tried to scoot away as his captors drew closer, hitting the back of the shed he was in; there were no convenient tools other than the interrogators’ torture equipment and he hose with saline solution, and he had scooted away from those.

“So, what shall we cut first?” The Ex-Yakuza guy spoke to his companion, whose blond hair was in a military cut. “He’s not that important, so I think he loses an ear first?”

“Let’s not play games with him anymore,” the Blond said in Japanese with a slightly posh British accent. “We’ll come after Tokita and the ward he pulled out of thin air anyway; let’s just slit his throat and be done -”

And Matteo shook his hair at them like a dog, scattering saline solution all over the place, surprising the kidnappers. He rushed the Blond first, seeing the latter as the greater threat, headbutting the latter in the stomach so hard that even the ballistics vest the hitman wore wasn’t enough to cushion the force.

The Ex-Yakuza cursed, but Matteo kicked out at his crotch with surprising strength; even the fact that his right foot was wrapped in a wet sock and not a shoe or that the man had a codpiece wasn’t enough to stop him from knocking away the latter’s knife out of his hands.

Fat lot of good that would do him; his hands were still tied behind his back and the Blond had held on to his own weapon - Matteo had pegged him as the more dangerous of the two.

“Smart,” the Blond said as he noticed that his companion had been knocked to the shed wall, moaning incoherently. “No more games.”

Then he danced out of reach of Matteo’s legs and feet, making light, probing stabs at the JHCI Pilot as the latter in turn kicked out to clear space for him to maneuver. This caused the Blond to chuckle and say.

“Leaving your legs free was Kijin’s idea,” the Blond said with contempt, “And look where it got him!”

He then slashed at Matteo, forcing him to lurch back, but this advantage ended the very next second when the JHCI Pilot spat at his right eye and then kicked the man’s knife away.

Scooting down to pick up the knife so that he can untie himself from the plastic zip-tie binding his wrists, Matteo found himself free, armed, and revising his opinion that SELEE actually hired professionals to deal with him and the others.

“I can’t believe your superiors are so cheap, they’d hire people who don’t know how to do anything right,” Matteo picked up the other knife as he gloated and casually stabbed ‘Kijin’ in the heart so as to maintain his hard-won advantage. Hiding all signs of guilt and emotional turmoil at having taken another life after so many years, Matteo continued, “Maybe this was all some sort of test, to see if we’re really a threat as well as dispose of useless pawns before the big event?”

The Blond dove for the only gun in the shed, the one he had taken away from Matteo and piled up with the man’s other weapons in a corner near the door, but Matteo was faster and with a lunge, shoved his knife into the man’s gut.

“A useless pawn, then,” Matteo said as he heard the whirring of a Motorcycle just outside the shed and Alonso’s voice shouting out into the air:

“Matteo, are you all right?!” his friend was clearly worried about him. Honestly, if the enemy hadn’t hosed him down with that saline solution so that he wouldn’t trash while his appendages were being cut off, he’d be worse off. But right now, he can take pride in himself for a job well done.

He chuckled and said, “The enemy was stupid, but they gave out that they know more than we’d like. Now give me a change of clothes and let’s go home.”

Looking at Alonso’s worried face, he briefly wondered if he should just accept the other man’s feelings; maybe God would understand as he did create said feelings in the first place.

Alonso Guttierez, you do care; maybe that is love after all....

 

Spoiler: Obsolete

Chapter Six

Author’s Note: Note that all ships will be between people of the same age group. Only Adults with Adults and non-sexualized romance between Minors. As for Incest, it is not my thing.

It was the day of the Jet Alone’s demonstration. Or, if one must be pedantic, the project that is outwardly known as ‘Jet Alone’ was going to have its public debut.

And right now, Shiro Tokita was nervous; he was going to have to act exactly the same way he had in that other universe/timeline/whatever, courting a potential disaster while playing for the highest stakes in his life.

Either way, he was feting investors and observers in the demonstration hall in the ruins of Old Tokyo, acting like the smug, smarmy, and very slightly offensive person he could be when drunk on success. And considering how Ritsuko Akagi of NERV was trying to keep calm in the face of his empty criticisms, it seemed like he, the Executive of JHCI, still had it.

Once it turned out he had pulled the wool over their eyes, then was the time to show NERV the real scope of his arrogance. When Matteo arrived in Panama to kick Evangelion Unit-02 to the dirt, it would be the end of NERV’s reign and the beginning of SEELE’s demise.

He glanced at his young intern, who was wearing a set of thick sunglasses that were supposed to hide his identity, but made him look more like his grandfather… And he felt his heart sink to his stomach as he realized that bringing him and Alonso/False Mikael here was a variable that Ritsuko and her companion, Misato Katsuragi of NERV’s Operations Division, might notice, making their reactions to his smug remarks less hysterical than he was trying to provoke.

It didn’t matter; Shiro Tokita wanted to share his success with other people, and so he will. Once the real demonstration was over and NERV and SEELE had crapped their pants, he’d buy all of them some sushi and soda.

------

Misato was kicking at the lockers in rage, swearing up a storm, while Ritsuko Akagi, at this point in time, would be using a lighter to burn the pamphlet detailing Jet Alone’s virtues.

Which is why it was a notable divergence that she did not do that. Instead, she spoke evenly, with almost no hint of rage and every sign of curiosity, “That intern by CEO Tokita’s side, he looks like a little Commander Ikari, don’t you agree?”

The response to that was for her friend to look at her, first in disbelief, then as she grasped the seriousness of her tone, she answered, “It could just be a coincidence. Maybe he’s just trying to psyche us out; after all, how likely is it for the Commander to have another child and if he did, how could that bastard Tokita have gotten ahold of him?”

Ritsuko said in a chilly, but the unsure tone, “True. He could have dressed up some random kid and put him in glasses that made him look like the Commander. But the question is, why? Does it mean that NERV’s Intelligence Division is failing worse than we thought?”

She had been apprised of NERV’s counter-scenario against this attempt to usurp them. Commander Ikari had planned for the fall and humiliation of Japan Heavy Chemical Industries, their project, and their representative in painstaking detail. But the child he had brought as his intern, the one by his side, not even the darkest glasses could disguise the fact that the boy had been looking at her.

It was ridiculous. There was no way she had provoked more than childish curiosity, and even if it was something more, it certainly was not a variable that would undo the promised scenario.

------

When a giant television screen, not a giant, long-armed bipedal mech, faced the group of investors and observers, Ritsuko’s fears were realized. As Misato and the other spectators began exclaiming surprise and throwing around accusations, she clenched her fingers until the nails dug into her palm.

“Ladies and Gentlemen,” she heard Shiro Tokita’s voice waft over the seats, “I must apologize for the innocent deception, but while there is a Nuclear-powered Mech and a viable replacement for NERV’s Evangelion units, the Jet Alone Project was a dead end, a smokescreen to be replaced by the real meat of JHCI’s efforts - Lumen Humanitas, a machine made by man, piloted by adults, and with a clean Nuclear Fusion Reactor that can produce the equivalent of Japan’s entire power grid several times over!”

The screen lit up, revealing a Mech that was not in any way the lumbering ape-like monstrosity that the Jet Alone was.

Spoiler: Hidden for Size

Originally a Frame Arms Action Figure from Kotobukiya, now Lumen Humanitas.
​

Even worse, from behind its back, Ritsuko could see a pillar with all-too-familiar red glyphs that seemed to be built onto the Mech itself.

Spoiler: Hidden for Size

Angel-Sealing Hex Glyphs from Rebuild of Evangelion, which can hold back Angels and Evangelions, especially in the final Rebuild Movie.
​

“Lumen Humanitas, by the way,” Shiro Tokita said with an echoing tone of arrogance and surety of purpose, “Has been transported all the way to the Panama Canal, where it and its Adult Pilot is to challenge Evangelion Unit-02, whose ship is sailing through all the way from Germany, for the Battle of the Century!”

Ritsuko’s lips were pursed, eyes fixed in icy rage; how could they have been outmaneuvered so completely? Even if the Second Child destroyed this mech and its pilot for their presumption, if the Pillar, Glyphs, and the system behind them worked as planned, which they would without Commander Ikari’s sabotage… Everything NERV and the ‘old men’ behind it had worked for would go up in smoke.

------

Matteo Masuda did not enjoy fighting kids, especially kids violent and skilled enough to punch his face in. As Asuka Langley Soryhu was enraged beyond reason at his challenge and the mere existence of his Lumen Humanitas, Evangelion Unit-02 leaped out of the aircraft carrier, its pilot shouting trash-talk and threats in German.

Anti-L System, activate. Projecting Anti-Coreification Barrier.

A red globe of energy surrounded Lumen Humanitas, causing the Evangelion’s punch to bounce off it as the machine itself flinched away. Obscenities and threats in German resumed from its pilot, amplified by genuine surprise and shock.

Time to brawl, then.

Lumen Humanitas did not need its Positron Cannon, which was every bit as powerful as the JSSDF’s, now that it had proven that it could repel even an AT-Field. All it needed now were the two Mech-sized Power Fists engraved with even more glyphs that can harm even an Evangelion unit… And Angels.

Matteo hit back, launching a series of heavy punches, not letting up, punching at, then through, Eva Unit-02’s AT-Field in order to pummel the screaming girl behind it to unconsciousness - From what Ken had told him, submission was not going to be an option for his opponent.

But although its armor plates were dented, the organic structure that formed the Evangelion was more resilient than he thought, kitting itself together even as Asuka drew back, switched to Japanese, and said as she smugly recovered her poise and the smugness Ken had told him about, “You’re a thief, aren’t you? You and your boss stole your research from NERV and are trying to beat us using it. Well bad news for you, you messed with the wrong pilot!”

And she picked up a small fishing boat, conveniently empty of anything but fish, and threw it at him. The Anti-L barrier did not repel that.

As Matteo shook off the fish and scrap metal from his mech, he heard Asuka laughing with justified arrogance, saying, “Ha! Can’t believe you’d give away your weakness this easily. Now let me show you the power of Unit-02 and the strength you’re going against!”

She jumped back to the Aircraft Carrier, where an underfloor platform just opened up to raise a Pallet Rifle for her Evangelion to grab, and Matteo was running in zig-zags, trying to hide behind empty warehouses to avoid the artillery-sized shots coming Lumen Humanitas’ way. Damn it, damn it, damn it!

Then he realized that he had no need to fear, and new resolve filled him; he was not going to let this child win against his own mech so easily - Matteo Masuda had his pride!

Whirling Lumen Humanitas toward the Aircraft Carrier Asuka’s Unit-02 was on, Matteo Masuda leaped onto the boat’s surface, shaking a few supersonic jets as he landed. Soaking a direct volley of Pallet Rifle Fire that blew holes into his mech’s armor, he hurled another punch at the Evangelion’s face, repelling and breaking its AT-Field once more and saying, “Let me show you what a Human can do!”

Asuka Langley Sorhyu was maddened further now, shouting, “You think you’re hot shit because you’re able to punch a girl’s face, huh?! Let me show you what a real fight between Pilots is like!”

And she picked up a plane and hit him with it. It was a plane empty of pilots but full of ordnance, too, so it exploded in his mech’s face with the help of Unit-02’s AT-Field. As Lumen Humanitas staggered back, Asuka’s Evangelion then picked up a Mech-sized bazooka raised from another underfloor platform and fired it at his own machine, blasting off its limbs and launching what remained, including the cockpit, off the boat and into the water of the Panama Canal.

“Ha! Pathetic!” Asuka Langley Soryhu’s words could be heard over the radio as Matteo activated a distress beacon to ask the UN Navy for rescue, a distress beacon which was also a signal of surrender…

------

Back at JHCI tower, Shiro Tokita’s face was taut with shock and worry as he saw the remains of Matteo’s mech get fished out of the Panama Canal, and Matteo himself was arrested and handcuffed as soon as he got out of the cockpit - The charge was ‘Theft of Intellectual Property’.

The only consolation was seeing Ritsuko Akagi and Misato Katsuragi’s faces scrunched up in rage and confusion as it was clear to them that if not for Asuka’s quick thinking, JHCI would have won a complete victory and even now, had proven Shiro’s point that NERV can be rendered obsolete with just the right advancements.

As for Ken Illustrious Ikari, he took off his glasses and faced Misato and Ritsuko straight in the eye - A challenge for them to guess his identity and relation to their ‘Shinji’.

The giant screen then switched to another ‘channel’, one showing a very displeased, yet smug, Gendo Ikari staring down at all of them.

“It seems you have drawn my attention, Executive Tokita, you and your compatriots. Come to NERV HQ at once, you and your mysterious ward. You have a formal invitation to discuss the charges of theft and usage of stolen information to challenge NERV.”

The implications were clear; Matteo was in their hands and Gendo Ikari was willing to play the legal game long enough to tie JHCI's hands unless Shiro Tokita played ball with him, which also entailed not trying to pin all the blame on his subordinate, which was anathema to him.

Few people might believe it, but he was more than what he had shown; he believed in Hope for a reason, after all...

 

Chapter Six

Author's Note: Hiatus has ended for now.

It was now the day where, in another universe’s first timeline, the Jet Alone would have been demonstrated to the investors and observers who wanted to see Giant Robots walking around. That was to have been the day of Shiro Tokita’s humiliation, but right now, thanks to the delays in the construction of Project: LUXMAN, Jet Alone’s successor project, the executive in question could just rest and relax in his office, playing games on the smartphone Ken had given him.

The gadget was a work of art as well as high technology, and Shiro had been learning as much of its hardware and software as he could, hoping to reproduce the technology for the benefit of mankind and his own pocketbook; hey, an executive had to make money, after all.

Either way, Project: LUXMAN was taking shape. Instead of being larger than an Evangelion like the Jet Alone was, it was half the size of one of those mechs. Instead of a Nuclear Fission Reactor which can leak in close-quarters combat, it used a ‘Clean’ Fusion Reactor instead, which risked less chance of contaminating the land should there be a leak after all. And of course, it had jet thrusters.

Oh, and our trump card, the Anti-L System, Shiro thought to himself. Either way, the plan was simple: Rent a cargo ship - They cannot afford a Carrier - to bring LUXMAN close enough to where Gaghiel would be fighting the UN Navy and the Evangelions, and let the comparatively tiny mech fly in to steal their kill.

Of course, that left the question, with what armament? The JSSDF would be breathing down their necks if JHCI tried to develop Positron weaponry for private use, so Ken had provided designs for an Electromagnetic Crossbow from his universe’s current timeline, as well as a Power Fist and a Battle-Axe covered with Angel-Sealing Hex Glyphs, one that was useful against Evangelions as well.

This would have to be enough; the other Board of Directors and the shareholders were already expressing concerns about the delays and changes to the ‘Jet Alone Project’.

The ball was in Matteo’s court now.

------

The demonstration was going to be out at sea, and Shiro Tokita knew that NERV was suspicious about how the date of this demonstration was the same date that Shinji Ikari, Pilot of Evangelion Unit-01, had been sent to greet Asuka Langley Soryhu, Pilot of Evangelion Unit-02.

And by that, NERV must have figured it out, but due to them (probably) not knowing about the Anti-L System, there was a strong chance that they had decided to let ‘Project: LUXMAN’ fail against an actual Angel’s AT-Field.

“They probably know about our alliance with NOAH,” Alonso said as he and a band of picked mercenaries escorted Shiro and Ken to the docks of Tokyo-2, where the cargo ship containing Project: LUXMAN had sailed off several hours ago. “Don’t worry, though; I’ve taken countermeasures against sabotage and direct attack.”

Shiro Tokita nodded and spoke in a plain tone, “We have fewer observers and investors coming to see our demonstration than I expected. I think that if we fail in this, our stockholders will lose faith in us and I’ll be thrown out.”

He then stubbornly decided, “But I don’t care. At least I fought for Humanity, for its hopes and its right to retain its present form; warts and all. And we will not fail.”

A large projector screen had been set up in the docks, where in s shaded pavilion, the remaining investors and several of JHCI’s shareholders were waiting for something to happen, a few of them muttering threats of what they would do if it turned out to be a waste of time.

Well, he, Shiro Tokita, was prepared to give them the show of their lives…

------

Ryoji Kaji was no fool. Japan Heavy Chemical Industries had made several jumps in technology, competence, and a willingness to take risks that were out of character for the private sector Post-Second Impact. That they had funded the original Jet Alone Project was merely an oversight on NERV’s part; that they had suddenly replaced said project with something impossibly advanced drew only suspicion, especially as all that was beyond the current intelligence and competence of one Shiro Tokita.

And being acquainted with precocious geniuses himself, Kaji knew better than to avoid suspecting the ‘war orphan’ Shiro Tokita had picked up just before his uncharacteristic behavior began - Just who was this Ken Aizawa and what did that mysterious child know about what was going on?

------

Matteo Masuda made LUXMAN, JHCI’s new project, stand. Then he made it walk. As he handled the control system already made familiar by countless hours in the simulations, he made the Mech’s hand wave hi at the camera crew standing behind the cargo ship’s comms room.

Then, he and LUXMAN took off, boosting the new Jet Thrusters towards the ocean, demonstrating the machine’s capability for flight. As this demonstration was transmitted live towards the docks of Tokyo-2, Matteo made sure to fly in seemingly random directions first, as if he was learning to master powered flight in a humanoid machine that defied the laws of aerodynamics.

All he had to do was buy time for the Angel called Gaghiel to attack so that the armament strapped to LUXMAN’s chassis and the Anti-L System built into the Mech could -

The Adult Pilot’s heart seemed to plummet into a deep abyss, and it took all Matteo had to keep LUXMAN, his vehicle, from dropping down into the water below as he realized the great big hole in their logic.

An Anti-L Barrier can defend against AT-Fields, but can it attack in turn?

Warnings were already being radioed into his Mech; Gaghiel had appeared and was ravaging the UN Pacific Fleet. LUXMAN and its Pilot were being warned to turn back, but Matteo knew that it would be a blow to Mr. Tokita and Ken’s goals if they were not able to demonstrate the Anti-L System.

He unstrapped the axe, the axe engraved with Angel Sealing Hex Glyphs on its blade and shaft, the latter connected to LUXMAN’s Fusion Reactor by a relatively thin, hyper-insulated wire.

And Matteo sailed forward, to test the net of destiny.

------

From the communications room of the US-built Aircraft Carrier Over the Rainbow, Ryoji Kaji made a strong suggestion to both NERV and the UN Navy, “Let our guest prove himself; what’s the harm in letting Eva Unit-02 have some help?”

The response from the latter’s pilot was immediate, “I don’t need help from a kill-stealing wannabe! I’ll tear apart this Angel myself!”

Asuka Langley Sorhyu was not going to let anyone stomp on her pride like this, especially not a metallic abomination that from her perspective, came from a different genre of mech Anime entirely. Kaji could appreciate that sentiment, but he decided that he should at least try and temper it.

“Even so, let’s see how he fights, shall we?” was his next radio message. “Who knows, maybe he can get himself killed without your help.”

“Hmph!” Asuka conceded with bad grace as Evangelion Unit-02 was raised up to the deck of the Aircraft Carrier in order to watch the Enemy Mech which thought itself equal to her own machine -

“What the f-king hell?!” she screamed in outrage as Luxuman or whatever that piece of scrap was called englobed itself in a red globe of light, one that caused its opponent, Gaghiel, the Sixth Angel, to visibly flinch, allowing the mundane mech to land on one of the UN Pacific Fleet’s cruisers, sparking muted protests at the incursion. “Those pricks actually pulled some Angel Repellant out of their asses? What has NERV been doing?!”

But she was not Asuka Langley Sorhyu, the genius Second Child, for nothing; her quick observational skills glimpsed that the barrier ‘LUXMAN’ had pulled out did not affect the people on the Cruiser’s deck, nor the surface it stood on.

Nor did the mech’s axe, whose blade shone with glyphs she knew she had seen before in NERV-Germany’s depths, breach the skin of Gaghiel when the weapon struck it; nor was it broken by the latter’s AT-Field; both mutually repelled each other.

“Hah!” she said in scorn, “You, wannabe Adult Pilot! Leave this to the kids if you cannot even touch the Angel!”

She felt a tug on her plug suit; it was Idiot Shinji, the Third Child and pilot of Eva-01, who had come to the Pacific Fleet to greet her but who had to share her Evangelion’s cockpit when the Sixth Angel attacked.

“What is it? Can’t you see -” Then she saw the same thing he did.

Gaghiel had spotted Evangelion Unit-02, and was leaping towards her position!

Spoiler: Canon Scene

https://imgchest.com/p/vj4j95l5y8m][/url]
​

“Kyaa!” she unceremoniously yelped as she and Idiot Shinji were treated to a full show of Gaghiel’s teeth as it moved to chomp down on them…

Only for it to be suddenly pulled away, backward, and then tossed into a space of open water - LUXMAN had grabbed the beast’s tail and yanked the much larger foe back, saving their lives.

“Tch!” Asuka refused to admit that last part in public, at least not to that Wannabe’s face, “Guess you can be useful after all, you kill-stealing piece of shit!”

There was a response, smooth yet curt, “Thank you.”

“Now let me show you how a real Pilot does it!” Asuka said as Unit-02 sprinted across the Aircraft Carrier’s deck, leaping at Gaghiel as the Angel recovered its bearings and swam towards her position again.

Her AT-Field neutralized the alien monster’s as the latter opened its maw, trying to bite her machine once more. However, Asuka was ready this time, and Eva Unit-02’s hands and feet were forcing the jaws apart, exposing the red Core at the back of its mouth.

Then, as one arm held up Gaghiel’s upper jaw while the other drew out a short but sharp Prog Knife, Asuka grinned as she - And that Idiot Shinji, he helped - stabbed the Angel’s Core as the UN Pacific Fleet scattered to try and avoid some of the coming explosion.

All in all, it was not such a bad day after all…

------

It took every bit of political favors and debts, drawing on his investors and observers’ antipathy towards NERV, and the good offices of the UN Pacific Fleet’s Admirals and Captains (who were out to embarrass the upstart branch of the UN), for Matteo’s technically illegal intrusion to earn nothing more than a slap on the wrist. However, Shiro Tokita could not hide from the accusation that he somehow knew when the Sixth Angel would attack and that he had hidden it from everyone else to promote his products.

Which, fair enough, was sort of the truth.

Right now, he was making up a cockamamie story about how it was all a lucky coincidence, but NERV was already closing in on him, and several people who should be his allies, the Japanese Government, had hinted that they wanted the technology behind Project: LUXMAN for themselves.

Right now, he was in his office, with Ken helping him sort through paperwork and bringing him coffee and otherwise making it clear that the boy was going to stand beside him for as long as it took.

“I’m not going to run away from unintended consequences,” Ken had said earlier this morning as the piles of criticism, rumors, and thinly-veiled threats added up on his desk. “Father stopped running away and got what he wanted after much tragedy. I am not a loyal son if I abandon my friends.”

Sentimental, Shiro Tokita thought. But then again, who am I to talk? No, we will make it through this; Matteo, Alonso, Ken and his parents, and the organization called NOAH, we will all make it.

Then as noon shifted to afternoon, Shiro Tokita came back from his lunch break to find a note from his Shareholders and the other Executives, saying that they had sold all of their shares in Japan Heavy Chemical Industries to the United Nations, who had promptly transferred them to NERV.

“Mr, Tokita,” Ken looked at him with fear in his eyes for the first time, “It seems Grandfather owns us now.”

 

Chapter Seven

Now that the UN had turned JHCI into a subsidiary company of NERV (that meant it was legally independent, and had its own board of directors, but NERV can veto its decisions at any time and was entitled to the company’s information and assets), Project: LUXMAN was out of the hands of the Japanese Government and any other companies who saw the Mechs’ potential as Anti-Evangelion weapons.

Shiro Tokita also had to hand over his financial statements to NERV, which now had evidence that he was working with groups in the Middle East aligned with NOAH - A breakaway organization that was an enemy of NERV’s backers. The worst possible spin would be put on that, he knew.

Days of interviews and news articles have seen him asked these questions:

“Did you know that the [Insert Middle Eastern Name Here] mines bauxite using child labor?”

“[Insert Middle Eastern Name Here] has ties with terrorist groups believed to be involved in [Insert Massacre Here] just after Second Impact?”

“Is it not dubious that some of the materials for Project: LUXMAN are from an unstable region where International Law has not been fully re-established?”

Fools, the lot of them. And now, Gendo Ikari, Commander of NERV, was inviting him to the Geofront in Tokyo-3, with the objective of discussing “The role of Project: LUXMAN in supporting the Evangelion Units.”

The invitation was outwardly cordial, acknowledging him as a pioneer in robotics and engineering, and welcoming him as a new partner of NERV. But between the lines, it revealed that Gendo knew a lot about what they were doing to the point where it made him uncomfortable.

Shiro Tokita – Despite my initial doubts about your competence, you have proven yourself a brilliant engineer with great potential, and Project: LUXMAN - formerly Jet Alone - acts as a testament to what Humanity can do in these trying times. If you are willing to work with us, let us save Humanity together - A bright future awaits our partnership.

However, it has been brought to my attention that there are rumors that you have information that might threaten the safety and security of the men and women under my command and the safety of the world in general. There have been foul rumors and conspiracy theories about NERV from its very inception, and I wish to know how much of this slander has reached your ears - We both know that the initial Jet Alone Project was pitched to people jealous of NERV's influence and skeptical of its decisions and their necessity to save Humanity.

This invitation is further extended to Alonso Guttierez and Matteo Masuda, your chief of security and your Adult Pilot, and the 'War Orphan' you have taken under your wing as an intern, Ken Aizawa.

As Commander of NERV, it is my duty to ensure the safety and security of our organization as they work their duty protecting all of humanity, and there is reason to believe that the people in your immediate circle are presenting information slanted to put NERV in a bad light. This may hamper our collective defense against the Angel threat. To clear up this misunderstanding, I would like the opportunity to meet with you in person.

If you refuse to meet with me, I will take it as a deepening of our misunderstandings and take appropriate action in response.

How much did he suspect?

“We have no choice but to go,” Alonso almost moaned as they met one more time in a private room in JHCI Tower. “And once there, we’ll be at Commander Ikari’s tender mercies - Or lack of.”

Matteo interrupted, “I don’t think they’ll be able to torture us right away, not without raising questions. They might, however, try and get one of us to blurt out a secret they can use to justify removing our legal protections. Then we get tortured.”

Ken then spoke, refusing to teleport out even though he was in dangerous circumstances now, “If you guys can get me inside the Geofront, there is someone I can talk to, someone who might believe me. So let’s go.”

There was little they can do to prepare after that, except meditate, pray, and otherwise de-stress as best as they could despite the fact that one wrong move can lead to their execution - Matteo and Alonso, now romantically involved with each other, chose Filipino Brandy (after Matteo’s prayers) as their method of stress relief.

Ken, meanwhile, spent some time in Shiro’s penthouse guest room trying to clear his thoughts and center his mind in quiet.

As for him, he, Shiro Tokita, chose to listen to sweet jazz; he’d gained a liking for that American genre of music.

------

The next day, ‘Team Tokita’ were escorted into the Geofront without much fanfare and ceremony by one Ryoji Kaji himself. Shiro could see that Ken was trying to keep himself as brave as possible; the sweat on his brow that had broken out despite the air conditioning was his ward’s only sign of fear.

This bravery was maintained even as the sound of footsteps was heard coming towards them. It was Ritsuko Akagi, NERV’s R&D Chief (?), and two well-armed guards who brandished their guns openly. The (fake) blonde scientist then said, “We’ve been tasked with escorting ‘Mr. Aizawa’ away from here and into an examination room. We just need to run a few tests on him and maybe ask him a couple of questions.”

For a brief moment, Ken lost his composure and looked nervously at Ritsuko, and Shiro could see his left hand tremble. Then the boy nodded and said, “All right, let’s go. After all, what does a kid like me have to fear?”

And as Ken let himself be escorted away, Shiro Tokita felt that he, Matteo, and Alonso were even more alone than before.

This was confirmed even more when, a few dozen meters further into the Geofront, Misato Katsuragi, now promoted to Major (he didn’t know if it was the same time as the ‘Original Timeline or if they had changed something), went up to Matteo with another pair of guards and said, “You’re to be debriefed as regards Project: LUXMAN’s capabilities; now that JHCI is a subsidiary of NERV, its assets, including the LUXMAN, must be accurately accounted for so that they can be used against the Angel threat in an optimal manner.”

Shiro Tokita was no fool (at least not in this universe) and he saw what Gendo was doing, and it was confirmed when within sight of the doors of the Commander’s Office, several NERV Intelligence men in black suits, sunglasses, and holstered guns took Alonso aside and spoke, “Alonso Guttierez, Private Security, right? We’re taking you in for suspicion of immigration offenses and taking illegal firearms and explosives across state lines.”

Yep, they were planning to have him confront Gendo Ikari alone, and Shiro only had raw bravado to tide him by. As Alonso was taken away, and the doors to the Commander’s Office opened, Shiro Tokita felt a surge of indignation, and walked forward smoothly, forcefully, defiantly.

“Mr. Tokita, I am glad you accepted NERV’s invitation,” his opponent gestured for him to take the chair in front of his desk. As Shiro did so, Gendo Ikari continued with false affability, “I believe we have a good opportunity here to talk about how we can work together and create a brighter future for humanity. But to do that, I require your full cooperation.”

He then gave a pained sigh, one that reflected genuine weariness that was nevertheless played up for emotional effect. Then he spoke, “I am the Commander of NERV, and it is my duty to keep the people under it, people who signed up to save Humanity, as safe and secure as possible. Therefore I need to know all you’ve been told - True and false - about the rumors of NERV’s inner workings and the organization called SEELE.”

Shiro knew he must have raised an eyebrow or indicated a reaction that showed he knew what Gendo was talking about, as the latter said, “If you are willing to work with me on this, I promise you my personal protection and assistance on avoiding their retaliation.”

Smooth, the JHCI executive thought. If not for what I know, I’d have believed him.

He chose his next words carefully, “How are you so sure that I genuinely know… And that if I did, I am not the type of person who'd oppose what they might be planning till the bitter end?”

Gendo’s face hardened a little, but his conciliatory tone continued, “Shiro, I am not certain. But as Commander of NERV, it is my duty to investigate every possible leak. If you do know, we must know too - For the sake of NERV and Humanity. So, do you know anything you should not know?”

His glasses glinted in the room’s pale light and were met by Shiro Tokita’s own glint of anger as he asked in turn.

“And what if I continue to deny that I know such... Information?" the JHCI executive thought he saw Gendo’s face further harden.

“Shiro, you are putting the security of NERV at risk if you do such; that is not something I will allow. I will give you one last chance; either you tell me what you know now, or I will take appropriate steps. Your choice.”

The following response was, "Would one of those countermeasures be interrogating my intern, a child who’s suffered enough already?"

Gendo gave a sigh, a sigh with just the faintest tones of exasperation before he said, “Every one of us has suffered enough already. You are not unique, nor is he. If your ward knows anything, he has a duty to Humanity to inform us. I will do what I must to safeguard NERV and its secrets - No matter how unpleasant.”

White, blinding rage filled Shiro Tokita for a moment before the executive said, “As said by someone who’d force his own son to pilot a weapon of mass destruction.”

He saw Gendo chill further; the other man knew that he knew and that he was the type to risk it all for his principles. But Shiro knew not to underestimate him now, especially as his opponent was keeping his composure.

“Mr. Tokita,” was Gendo Ikari’s next remark, “It is most discourteous to intrude upon a complete stranger’s family matters. How I treat Shinji is none of your concern.”

Shiro took a few deep breaths, and asked, “So am I supposed to stand by when adults do the same thing they’ve been doing before and after Second Impact - Pass the burden of solving the problems they caused to their children? That has never been right and it never will be - Especially now that adults have the capability of solving their own mistakes.”

Gendo retorted, “Do you actually believe that Humanity can solve their mistakes, then? If so, NERV and the Evangelions are the means to do so.”

Shiro’s response was, “What do you need from Japan Heavy Chemical Industries, then, if you don’t believe we have the tools?”

He then continued, “As I see it, the world already knows now that Angels can be repelled with the appropriate technology, and while we can’t replace the light of the Human soul, we can supplement it; support those who can emit it. And everyone understands that mass-produced mechs have become useful against Evangelion Units, maybe more so against them than against the ‘Alien Menace’ the Angels represent.”

Then a follow-up, “The existence of the Anti-L System combined with mundane mechs means that NERV’s days on the throne are numbered - Same for the covert backers whose existence you confirmed just earlier.”

Gendo answered smoothly, but also curtly, “Which is why we need that technology… That, by the way, NERV had been developing for the past few years.”

NERV’s Commander continued, “NOAH is overstepping itself stealing from us and using you as their catspaw, isn’t it? A gadfly in the Middle East, too small to look beyond petty concerns and focus on Humanity’s future -”

Shiro kept his poise as he interrupted and said, “Oh, no; I and The Insert - Ken - have been planning this long before NOAH offered to provide raw materials and security.”

It was rare for an adult to willingly admit that a kid planned out, even inspired, the achievements attributed to him. But Shiro Tokita did just that as he dropped the bombshell, “Ken’s from another universe where you failed - He’s Shinji’s son. Ask Dr. Akagi for the DNA results, they won’t lie.”

For a brief moment, Gendo Ikari looked like he was about to laugh at Shiro; ridicule him and his assertions. But he must have registered the truth in said assertions, as he took out his landline phone and called Ritsuko.

Shiro Tokita appreciated how pale the man’s face became after just a few snatches of conversation.

 

Chapter Eight

Ken had detected the presence of Yui Ikari, his Grandmother, inside Evangelion Unit-01 as soon as he entered NERV with the JHCI delegation. His plan, once he was close enough, was to form a telepathic connection with her; he just needed to let Ritsuko Akagi, NERV’s science chief who was in charge of his interrogation, take some samples and then get distracted analyzing them.

That was the crucial phase of his private operation, an operation he had kept secret from the rest of his team, including Mr. Tokita. So he was going to let Ritsuko take a sample of his blood, his hair, and the cells from the roof of his mouth, knowing that when she went to analyzing -

“You’re a clone, right?” Ms. Akagi suddenly asked. “You can almost pass for another child of the Commander and his wife, but we both know he only had Shinji. The minor variations in appearance are probably from mutations as a result of the cloning process. Now, roll up your left sleeve; an analysis should confirm who your gene donors were.”

Ken gave a slight, “Tch,” as she gestured him to the examination chair, then continued, “A clone would be an obvious answer to the questions I present, and it fits your paradigm.”

Ritsuko gave him a skeptical half-glare, before saying, “Your knowledge of the thesaurus aside, the Commander thinks you were made as a mockery of him and Shinji, and used to pass on stolen secrets from SEELE and NERV to Japan Heavy Chemical Industries. He has ordered me to get you on the examination chair through any means possible.”

The boy sighed and said, “Fine. Just get on with it. I’ll even stay put if you need me to.”

Grandmother had sensed his presence; he can pick up her mind reaching out and he just needed an opportunity to concentrate.

So he sat down on the chair, swallowing his discomfort as he allowed Ritsuko to take the needed cells and begin the analysis. Now he can focus on -

“The MAGI finished the analysis in 0.0001 seconds; they considered your existence a curiosity worth focusing their attention on. They also detected signatures of various particles whose radiation, though they reassure me that it is harmless, signal quantum teleportation across universes and dimensions,” Ritsuko’s face was pale as she spoke. “Their assessment… Is that you are Shinji’s son with an unknown woman with none of the genetic abnormalities of a clone? And also that the particles come from some sort of… Space in-between universes?”

Ken glared at her before saying, “Grasp the implications yet, Ms. Akagi? Instrumentality failed where I came from, and we intend to make sure it keeps failing everywhere, everywhen. There is hope for Humanity in its current state and I intend to take it.”

Grandmother was actively reaching out, her consciousness touching his’ with curiosity and affection. Ken now felt able to tell a shocked Ritsuko so he can confirm her findings, “Now, inform Grandfather of my nature; I’m going to commune with my Grandmother.”

------

Shiro Tokita knew that Gendo Ikari was not a complete monster, just a broken man who pushed away his son due to his mad quest to reunite with a wife who had a hidden megalomaniac streak. That didn’t make him any less ruthless, but any impulse to just order Ken’s death, his own, or Matteo and Alonso’s was dampened by the realization of the threat he faced.

This realization, of course, was met with calm dignity, as Gendo clasped his hands together and rested his chin on them, whispering to himself, “So Ken does not have the genetic markings of a clone but a trueborn human, particles indicating quantum teleportation and extradimensional origins can be found around him; full confirmation of his’ and your statements.”

Time to continue talking; Shiro Tokita needed to drop even more revelations while Gendo’s psyche was slightly more vulnerable than usual, “Ken came here on his own, expecting to shock me into siding with his madcap plans to prevent Instrumentality in this universe and give his father’s version here a happy ending. I got the whole story out of him instead.”

Glaring at Gendo, Shiro spoke, “He’s not as smart as he thinks he is, but he’s smarter than others give him credit for. I’m sure he had a plan for when he’s taken to this godforsaken place, a plan he kept secret from even me -”

Alarm bells rang, and a message was played over the intercoms, saying, “Unit-01 is self-activating, repeat, Unit-01 is self-activating!”

And in a flash of light, a flash of light that caused the Geofront’s MAGI Systems to report that they detected an “UNKNOWN PATTERN” (or was it PATTERN: UNKNOWN?), Ken Illustrious Ikari materialized inside the room, looking only a little frazzled, before walking up to Gendo Ikari's desk and saying, “Grandfather, I was able to form a telepathic connection to Grandmother. Don’t look so surprised; Father can do it as well when immersed in Unit-01’s LCL - That’s the basis of Evangelion piloting, isn’t it?”

Gendo grits his teeth, but it was clear that his composure was breaking down as he said, “Yui…”

Then the doors opened once more, and one Ryoji Kaji and Misato Katsuragi didn’t care that they were violating protocol by busting through the guards at Gendo’s office. Misato was the first to speak:

“Commander Ikari, what is happening? Why is Unit-01 acting on its own?” she then looked at Ken, “And wasn’t this kid being examined by Ritsuko some time ago?”

Ken answered the first two questions with, “I suggested an alternate deal to Grandmother. As for who I am? Well, I’m the game-changer here.”

A few seconds passed as Gendo grasped that Ken was doing exactly as the boy had said he would, and his face lit up with a mix of hope and dread as he, despite himself, rooted for his grandson to succeed.

Then, Ritsuko’s shocked voice sounded over the intercoms as she said, “Something is emerging from Evangelion Unit-01! It’s organic, human in shape - No, it is a human, and the description exactly matches that of…”

She couldn’t finish, but the implications were clear.

Ken then explained for everyone here, “Yui Ikari chose to be assimilated into Evangelion Unit-01 to make it work, turning the Angelic flesh it was made from into a working unit through the addition of a human soul. Her innermost goals were to give her son, Shinji Ikari, control of the outcome of the Human Instrumentality Project - More on that later - and transform the remnants of Evangelion Unit-01 into an eternal memorial that Humanity existed that would last till the end of space, time, and the universe.”

The boy’s expression then turned a little smug, and Shiro Tokita was proud of him as he said, “But I offered a better deal.”

Looking at the others inside the office, Ken said, “An eternal Ikari lineage, across multiple universes and timelines, composed of the children of various Shinji Ikaris with Asukas, the occasional Rei, Maris in worlds where they exist, and even Kaworus - The fact that Kaworu is male can be solved with artificial wombs and stem cell research. That’s what I promised Grandmother for her agreement to go back to the world, derail Grandfather’s plans and take away his motivation, and make the planned breakup of SEELE all the easier.”

And to seal people’s understanding of what was happening, a faint, hoarse voice echoed through the intercom, a voice that was, nevertheless, unmistakably Yui Ikari’s.

“Gendo… I’m back. Unit-01 is useless now, though…” Two coughs could be heard after that.

And Gendo recovered his poise looked at his grandson with something resembling respect, and said, “If this is what Yui wants, then our goals align now. However, you must know that this move might result in yet another World War; the Fourth if we count what happened after Second Impact as World War Three.”

Ken nodded and said, “As Mr. Tokita himself reminded me. Anyway, can Matteo and Alonso be allowed to come here? Matteo probably told you guys everything needed to make sure LUXMAN works well with the Evangelions while Alonso, well, there’s no risk that he’s going to assassinate anyone from NERV now that we’re all friends now, right?”

It was Misato Katsuragi who interrupted next, lifting her hand to say, “Wait, if Shinji’s mother was inside Unit-01, and she’s out of Unit-01, and Unit-01 no longer works, does that mean Shinji is no longer a pilot?”

All right, time to remind people of his presence. Shiro Tokita took a few steps closer to Misato and Kaji and said, “The Good news? Shinji Ikari becomes a normal person again with both his parents and his time-traveling son visiting regularly from my place. The Bad news? The time-traveling son has turned over heaven and earth to do that and NERV is likely to be at war against fellow Humans just as much as it is against the Angels.”

Then to remind Ken that they were still equal partners, Shiro turned to the other boy and said, “Remember what I said about war - It isn’t a game!”

In the meantime, Matteo and Alonso were ushered in, and Shiro sighed in relief at seeing the two unharmed. As he heard Misato and Kaji asking Ken questions and Ken answering them all in his slightly smug way, the JHCI executive decided to let the Ikari Family and NERV’s personnel handle things; right now, he was glad to have done his part.

------

This happened a little while later.

The Castle of Alamut, the headquarters of the historical Assassins, had been rebuilt in the chaos of Post-Second Impact warfare. Unlike before, members of other faiths shared the space, where NOAH, the Middle Eastern ragtag bunch of misfits (in relative terms) had broken away from SEELE and had been flailing against it since. Now, the more militant wing of the faction’s leadership met in corporeal form; several pairs of men and women who regarded each other as equal before the eyes of God.

That said, the Knights Templar, now re-established in the Middle East, had the most important thing to say, with their male representative saying, “Alonso Guttierez has succeeded; his alliance with The Insert and The Executive has struck a blow to SEELE and taken the heart out of NERV.”

Their female representative added, “The Stations of The False Cross; the plan for Humanity laid out by SEELE, NERV, and Yui Ikari before she was enticed to a new… Bargain, those have been shattered. Only the sequence of Angels remains to dictate Humanity’s path.”

The Scholars who made up the Lions of Maimondes’ representatives then cleared their throats, before the male said, “So war it is. A war that will bring tears to an already suffering world. But to prevent the abomination that is Instrumentality and the appropriation of the names of Angels that SEELE has committed, there is no other alternative.”

The female asked, “Of course, without the Evangelion Unit-01, how can the False Angel who usurps the name Israfel be fought? Will we lend material to JHCI to produce more LUXMANs?”

A nod from the Reborn Order of Assassins’ female representative, saying, “Yes, and we will send more pilots too; the Suburovs might lend themselves their usefulness. Their youngest scion would like to meet The Insert.”

Then the male representative opened his mouth to say, “Then it is agreed. War it is, and the further derailment of the enemy’s plans. They cannot dictate that Humanity is dead as a species without the informed consent of most of Mankind.”

“Let it be so,” said all the women in the council chamber of the rebuilt Alamut Castle.

“Let the Almighty’s Will be done,” the men responded.

Not all in NOAH believed that there was such a thing as The Almighty, but they all believed in the importance of ceremony and custom; if The Almighty existed, he’d be honored, while if he didn’t, invoking him was harmless to their organization…

 

Chapter Nine

Note: I made some grammar, spelling, and flow edits.

Ritsuko Akagi noticed the first hole in the ‘Happy Family Scenario’ that Ken boy was trying to set up, namely, the fact that Shinji Ikari, much as he objected to being an Evangelion Pilot, actually found being one a boost to his self-esteem. Not just that, but bringing his mother back would not magically solve his issues with both parents. If anything, this situation, if not managed properly, would just cause Shinji to spiral downwards.

That made him dangerous, even if he was no longer a pilot.

And now Shiro Tokita was meeting her in the officers’ lounge mere hours after he’d been granted an official pass, his opening words were subtle, not giving much away.

“So, it seems Ken’s as prone to wishful thinking as the rest of us. Shinji Ikari’s happiness will not be easily dictated by other people. Even if they praise him, tell him they like and appreciate him, the fact remains that it’ll come off as insincere to the boy. Ken has shown you the videos of the ‘Original Timeline’ and the ‘Rebuild Timeline’ of the ‘Original Universe’, yes?”

Ritsuko silently nodded, acknowledging the objectiveness of his insight, “There wasn’t enough time so I just skimmed through it all and followed the Cliff Notes attached to each video… That boy put in extra comments saying that he hid—… He’d hidden what Gendo had done to me.”

Bitterness was apparent in her voice, bitterness for the fact that people knew Gendo had seduced her just like he had her mother, that such a shame could have been weaponized against her but it was overlooked. Sighing to collect herself, she continued. “He also implied that I could be happy with Ms. Ibuki… That she had a crush on me… and that all would be better if I returned her feelings. It’s… a naïve thought.”

Shiro Tokita nodded respectfully, sparing her a moment before he spoke. “Is that what stops you? The fact that Ken does not know how trauma works and is under the delusion that finding a new romantic partner would just magically make everything better? Or is it a… simpler explanation? That you just aren’t attracted to the same sex and thus cannot return Ms. Ibuki’s feelings?”

“You do realize that we live in a… traditional society, Mr. Tokita?” Ritsuko Akagi automatically defaulted to her bad habits of pushing aside the truth by responding thusly. “Ken might come from a world where he can flirt with girls and other boys whenever he feels like it, but we live in this universe. Our timeline and society are not his.”

She’d found out that Shiro was demonstrating insight that hadn’t been there in the ‘Original Timeline’ when the JHCI Executive responded, “You didn't answer my questions; If you don’t like Ms. Ibuki ‘that way’, all you need to do is say so.”

Ritsuko conceded, looking away with a sigh. “As we now live in a world where everyone is airing out each other’s dirty laundry and personal scandals, I will admit that Ms. Ibuki is attractive, for both men and other women. In a kinder, more tolerant world, I’d have given her a chance. But we don’t live so freely, do we?”

Shiro Tokita did not bat an eye; he rarely batted an eye except when facing a complete disaster. Just like in the ‘Original Timeline’. Instead, he followed up with something she… didn't expect.

“The answer would be simple then. Let’s make a kinder, more tolerant world. Ken, rotten shipper that he is, proved it’s actually possible. And let’s not forget, NERV is all about saving Humanity, right? So why not make Humanity worthy of salvation ‘the hard way’?”

For the first time since this whole mess started, Ritsuko Akagi quietly huffed while failing to hide a smile. “As expected of a man who uses ‘HOPE’ as a password without any sense of shame or irony. You’ve grown past that smug, slightly sexist sleazeball who thought he could just ‘dethrone’ us. Guess your ward really was a positive influence?”

“Despite that arrogance of his… Yes, he might just be…”

She finally saw a smile shift the man’s expression as he admitted.

-/-/-/-​

Asuka Langley Sohryu had just received the news.

She took it as badly as can be expected.

NERV had betrayed her in the worst possible way and there was nothing she can do about it, not with her mother being in Evangelion Unit-02 and the Angels still out there, just itching for a fight. But apparently, the Idiot Shinji gets his mother back because letting him pilot would cause the apocalypse!

‘What a fucking joke…’ She could’ve spat on the floor.

It hurt more that it was Kaji who had delivered the news—as well as the irrefutable proof in the form of documents and videos—to her.

Loitering in an observation deck facing Unit-02, she was clad in civilian clothing as she hadn’t been permitted near the Evangelion yet. For obvious reasons.

Nevertheless, not giving a damn about who heard her, she pounded a balled fist on the bulletproof glass, shouting, “Damn it, damn it, damn it! My entire life has been a lie and you all just stand there! I hate NERV! I hate you all! You all took my mother away from me!”

She wished she could actually punch through the glass. At the very least, destroy something of NERV’s to get back at the life they destroyed. But it was all for naught, her anger.

There was no hope of getting her mother. Unlike Idiot Shinji, she wasn't so special; especially when her mother’s corporeal body, animated by a small portion of her soul, had hanged itself after trying to kill Asuka herself. Now it was buried six feet under, and all the girl could do was commune with Evangelion-Unit 02 when she was judged stable enough to pilot it in combat.

And she would have to be if she ever wanted a chance to feel what a mother’s love was like once more.

‘At least she did love me! No one can take that away from me! No one!’ Her aching wrist punched the glass once more, damning her hand to an afternoon numbed by a cold pack. ‘Not even NERV...’

In her frustrations, she failed to notice Matteo Masuda, Project: LUXMAN’s adult pilot, observing her from the entrance of the observation deck. He’d been unable to hide the pity in his eyes and, had she noticed, she would have trashed him then and there.

The man at least had some decency to give the girl privacy in airing her frustrations.

-/-/-/-​

Misato Katsuragi and Ryoji Kaji were in an underground cargo bay in the Geofront, where Ken, following instructions from Parallel Shinji and his wife, Mari Illustrious Makanami (Maria Iscariot , someone who was dead in this universe due to a dubious experiment), was setting up a ‘Teleport Beacon’ using a modified version of NERV’s own tech and the processing power of the MAGI.

The beacon was a small rectangular pillar that glowed with a green version of Angel-Sealing Hex Glyphs. Attached to the floor with some sort of adhesive that was stronger than reinforced concrete, Ken fiddled with it, causing the green glow to grow in intensity. All of a sudden, shipping containers began appearing all over the once-empty area.

So did yet another person, a young man in his mid-twenties. One who shocked both Misato and Kaji with how his face bore a stark resemblance to them, or a fitting mix of both of theirs leaning heavily to Kaji’s.

“Parallel Mom, Parallel Dad,” said the young man, clad in farmers’ overalls and whose hands were stained with soil and bits of grass. “Greetings. The name’s is also Ryoji Kaji, and I come with my universe’s ‘care package’.” Casually turning to the other person in the area, he added. “Ken, can you open one of those shipping containers?”

Nodding, Ken approached one of the boxes, pressed his fingerprint on a keypad—His universe can afford those?—causing the metal to open, thus revealing to Misato and Kaji the contents within.

Spears. Kaji Jr. then followed up with an explanation of the armaments they were looking at.

“These are replicas of the Spears of Longinus, Gaius… And, yes, Marius.”

That last name was clearly the source of some unpleasantness judging by his tone. It had been explained by one of the videos they’d watched—the one of the final battles of the ‘Rebuild Timeline’—something best not brought up for lack of a better time.

“Each replica can create and pierce AT-Fields and even turn the latter into laser beams. In essence, these are techno-organic laser weaponry that can also create energy shields. With these, NERV has additional options against Angels and, when—not if—necessary, human enemies.” the younger man’s expression shifted slightly as he continued. Looking at Misato and Kaji in the eyes for a few seconds, he then said, “Ken showed you the videos of the JSSDF’s assault on NERV in the original timeline, the one this universe most resembles, right? If so, make sure they get a beating for me.”

He paused for a moment, seemingly satisfied with the nods they retuned as he then smiled. “Anyway, time for me to go. Be safe, Mom and Dad. You have the truth early. Make sure to use it well and not get shot… Nor allow things to end up in a situation where have you to sacrifice yourselves to save everyone…”

He looked to want to give them a hug but vanished in a brief flash of light, his time already up. Left with dumbfounded expression, neither Misato nor Kaji Sr. misunderstood the young one’s sincerity.

-/-/-/-​

As for the boy they were all worried about—Shinji Ikari…

He had run out of NERV HQ, neither bothering to talk to his father or the mother he had missed for the longest time. He didn't even pay heed to the intruder claiming to be his son from a happier world.

The worst-case scenario had happened: the young lad was already in a downwards spiral and he was not going to give everyone else a chance to lift him up, not when they thought they could dictate his life just like a script.

The boy hadn’t even bothered to resign from NERV, whose Section Two was now undergoing a set of purges of SEELE spies and thus too preoccupied to wrangle him back like they had last time. Not just that, but even if Section Two was at full strength and capability, something—or someone—was keeping them from finding Shinji, concealing his presence from any pursuers.

Sat on the shore of a lake glittering from moonlight somewhere in the Hakone countryside, Shinji sobbed.

After all the trouble they went into to get him in the robot in the first place, they were now throwing him away and telling him to be happy. That everything he had wanted was now his without him asking for it. That his father was now willing to act like a real father because his mother was back and his plans had changed.

But… no one had ever consulted him about what he wanted. Not one…

No one had the time to ask what he thought… or cared to… Always jerked around, always pushed wherever they wanted him…

Why would they talk to him? Who would even ask him? No one, that’s who!

And what would they even ask him…? No… What would they even want to ask him… What would make him happy?

He couldn't even answer that himself.

Many things had changed… but it was the same sad thing for him.

He wanted to lash out. He wanted to vent. He wanted to be seen as more than he was… but… how could he—

The sound of footsteps had Shinji turning around in fury, only to pause as he saw a beauty unlike any other. Starlight and the moon’s glow reflecting on pale skin and silver hair. Stood before him was a boy wearing the uniform of his own school, but… he couldn't recall ever seeing such a person before.

He would've noticed… especially if they were this beautiful.

Shinji had never thought of other boys like this. For boys to see their fellows in such a way… that was shameful, improper. But now, emotionally vulnerable as he was, all he could do was admire a picture of art that just so happened to be male like him.

As the silver-haired teen stepped towards him, Shinji Ikari was stunned to silence, as though he was looking at a perfectly illuminated sculpture, an otherworldly beauty, approach him.

And as the beautiful boy spoke, his tone radiating warmth and kindness, Shinji listened.

“You must be Shinji Ikari. Nice to meet you. I am new to this part of the world, you see?” the words were musical, impossibly melodic. “You know, the fact that this lake is so pristine shows that Humanity knows how to respect nature as much as it can pollute it, and appreciate the beauty and wonder of the world it usually exploits for its own survival and comfort.”

Poetic as well as deep, Shinji found himself awestruck. But when he spoke, he let slip a hint of suspicion in his voice. “What are you doing here?”

“To see you, of course. Not the image others have of you, not what others think you are and what others think you want. I want to hear it from you, said in your voice.” He paused, staring into Shinji’s eyes—nay, his soul. An ephemeral beauty requesting an answer. “What do you think will make you happy, Shinji Ikari?”

Shinji knew he shouldn’t drop his guard; if anything, he should keep it up against a stranger who knew just the question going through his mind. But then again, why should he? No one else truly cared about him, so why not grasp for straws and hope that this person, this… stranger who seemed to understand, might actually do so?

Compared to everyone else, this one looked to at least be… honest with his intentions of using Shinji.

Nevertheless, the boy held himself back and asked. “Who are you? Who are you working for? What do you want from me?”

The other boy smiled, and the smile was as brilliant as the starry sky above him.

“My name is Kaworu Nagisa, and I am, for the time being, a servant of SEELE, NERV’s enemies. And as for what I want from you? That might not be the same as I was asked to do.”

“What… what are you talking about?”

‘Kaworu Nagisa’ paused but then continued his approach, slowly stepping closer into Shinji’s comfort zone, slowly closing the gap with his melodic voice gently easing Shinji’s doubts and fears.

“You see, it’s not that I want something from you, Shinji.” He paused, standing intimately close before the boy whose heart was beating a mile a minute. “It’s you I want. I was sent to bring you to them.”

 

Chapter Ten

Shinji had been missing for two days now, and Israfel’s attack on Tokyo-3 was imminent. Now that Unit-01 was no longer a factor, Asuka and Rei now had to be the ones to coordinate their Evangelions’ moves to destroy Israfel’s split halves as they fused back into their original form. As someone who had watched the Original and Rebuild Timelines’ records, Ken Illustrious Ikari thought he was ready for the inevitable quarrels that would result.

He was wrong.

“I should have known a doll like you would be useless for this sort of thing!” Asuka was shouting at Rei for what seemed like the umpteenth time, only to receive an emotionless, stilted reply.

“I’m only doing what was commanded of me by Commander Ikari, that is all,” Rei said back at an even more infuriated Asuka as her feet left the ‘Dance Dance Revolution’ pads at the bottom of Misato’s apartment.

“Of course, you would!” Asuka screamed at her, “This, even though he threw you away the moment he got his wife back -”

Ken could see it; Rei’s right arm was being raised, and her palm opened to slap Asuka - He had to interfere.

“That was my fault!” the boy butted in, drawing attention to himself and for the first time, quailing as Asuka turned her gaze on him, eyes locking on his own.

“So the boy wonder chooses to talk,” Asuka’s tone was suddenly cold, but echoing with an unspoken threat. “How many lives are you planning to ruin now, you dimension-hopper?”

Ken glared back at Asuka, blurting out, “Your lives came pre-ruined - I merely revealed how so that you can have a chance at fixing it.”

The redhead’s face scrunched in a further paroxysm of rage, but it was Rei who mumbled, “No one asked you to fix our lives.”

Asuka turned to Rei in response, her expression slackening for just a moment before she huffed, "Yes! We didn't ask you to fix our lives! We didn't ask you for your help!...etc."

Then she looked at Ken and said, "So?! Why has the Commander’s new golden boy come here? Come here to replace your Idiot father as his godforsaken placeholder?!"

Ken inhaled, then exhaled, before saying, “We received a message from his teacher - The one Grandfather left him behind with, back then - That Parallel Dad had returned to him safely. We then double-checked, and it turned out that he didn’t recall sending that message. Considering what SEELE has access to…”

"Hah!" Asuka scoffed, “So you admit you've lost then. Ken Ikari, the time-traveling, universe-jumping, dimension-hopping son, the one brat who seems to know the answer to anything and everything, failed to save his dear father from the dark fate he foresaw.” She spat at his feet. "How does it feel to be severely disappointed when the world doesn't work the way you want it to, huh?!"

All right, that’s it; Parallel Aunt or not -

As Ken opened his mouth to shout something back, the door opened, and Misato Katsuragi entered the apartment, saying, “I sent someone to check up on whether Shinji is really with his old teacher. He wasn’t. However, we did find a letter from one ‘Kaworu Nagisa’ saying that we’re going to get a ‘pleasant surprise’ once the Israfel fight ends.”

She then looked at Ken and spoke, making her uncertainty plain with a frown, "You mentioned this "Nagisa"... He's an Angel of SEELE that is infatuated with your father... Are you absolutely certain it would be enough to make him turn on his own all for Shinji's sake?"

Ken nodded, a cold feeling seeping into the pit of his stomach as he answered, “The reasons for his falling in love with my father are still applicable to this timeline. Nevertheless, I agree that we cannot be sure that he would be on our side even if he does decide that Parallel Dad’s happiness matters more than SEELE’s goals or the Angels’.”

His eyes glinted as he spoke, “You’re going to need me for a search and retrieval mission. Not because I am ‘as good as the adults’ - I’m not - but because Uncle… I mean Kaworu Nagisa, would think twice about killing me, even if only because I am potentially valuable to whatever cause he embraces. Otherwise, he’d slaughter anyone sent against him.”

Asuka interrupted, “You really have a high opinion of yourself, don’t you? Have you ever considered that maybe Angel Boy has been asked to lure you out?”

Ken decided to concede the point with a, “You’re right, but what else can we do?”

Rei opined, “Waiting is an option. We have to defeat Israfel, right? And I don’t think that the Third Child would come to harm even if Mr. Nagisa is loyal to SEELE.”

All three women would see Ken blink and then concede with a nod, saying, “All right, I respect Aunt - I mean Rei’s - borderline oracular pronouncements, so I’ll go bother someone else.”

Asuka scoffed again, “Why not bother those idiots, Toji or Kensuke? I’m sure they’d love to be bribed with the super-tech you flash around like one of the cool rich kids… Wait, are you rich in your home world?”

Misato interrupted before Ken can confirm his wealth or lack thereof, “That reminds me… Mr. Aida - Kensuke - has asked your boss by private letter if he can pilot a LUXMAN unit.”

Ken twitched at that and said, “I see. I’ll go talk to Mr. Tokita, then…”

-------

Matteo did not expect to be accosted by a high school student as he walked around the streets of Tokyo-3, accompanied by Alonso, plus a couple of bodyguards who followed them a discreet distance behind.

“Umm… Hello?” the boy exclaimed in a loud tone, “My name is Kensuke Aida and I’m a student at First Municipal High School; you are Matteo Masuda, right? The pilot of the ‘LUXMAN’ unit which helped out the Evangelions in the ‘Pacific Ocean Incident’, right?”

Matteo had already guessed what the boy was going to ask, and promptly shut it down with all the grace he can muster, “No child pilots allowed.”

Kensuke sighed and said, “How did you know I was going to ask that?”

“Guesswork,” was the blunt and curt response; Matteo did not need more kids getting involved in a war, and he elaborated further, “Look, you do realize this is a war, right? And that using child soldiers - Pilots - is a desperate move?”

Matteo had watched the videos Ken had brought; he knew Kensuke had a chance to grow and change, but that was in the Rebuild Timeline, where it took the reduction of the Human population into a few small communities to actually spark said change.

"Please. I don't care if it's in the cockpit or just helping others in maintenance!" Kensuke's voice hitched as he quickly hushed himself to a desperate whisper. "Besides, you're going to need all the help you can get, right? I mean... I heard from my father that NERV is getting even more challenges and interference from the UN for some reason. I want to do what I can too!"”

Matteo’s face began to twist into a cringe, but Alonso finally made his presence known by patting him on the arm before saying in a mild, sweet tone.

“Asking people for a job on the street is a very rude thing to do, Mr. Aida; would you prefer to discuss this over ramen instead?” Alonso clearly had more patience toward children than he had; that was fine with him.

Then the redhead whispered to him, “Remember, he proved capable of maintaining and repairing Anti-L Systems in the Rebuild Timeline.”

Why did that seem like an excuse to just talk? Either way, Matteo wouldn’t object to being in a shaded place for a few hours…

------

They had made sure that the booth and the area around it were secure, and now Alonso was paying for him, Kensuke, and even the two bodyguards, distracting the ramen store owner with an extra large order.

Of course, the redhead then proved to be too conciliatory when he said to Kensuke, “Does your father know you want to be a Pilot? While we can’t allow that yet, we can apprentice you to a mechanic…”

Okay, time to give his boyfriend a death glare.

“That’s a great start!” Kensuke was enthusiastic now, only to be interrupted by the mercenary, who looked him in the eye and spoke:

“But first, we need you to tell us about what you exactly got when you accessed your father’s data files just a couple of days ago…”

Oh, right, Kensuke’s father works at one of NERV’s bases and Kensuke hacks into the files sometimes. Alonso must have caught a data breach, Matteo felt his polite smile twitch but didn't let his feelings be known.

“I-is this place safe?” Kensuke asked as he glanced at the ramen chef, only to find that the latter seemed unusually occupied, even distracted. Then he mumbled, “I know… you’re at war. Against other humans.”

Well that was more than we expected, Matteo said as his right hand instinctively moved towards his holstered knife, before he quickly withdrew it as he forced himself to relax.

Time seemed to slow down as he felt it; his boyfriend was activating a ‘psychic trick’ thought to most members of NOAH and its composite organizations, one that required very little amount of actual power; one can even argue that this wasn’t actually psychic - Just a form of hypnosis.

Alonso Guttierez was now reminding him and Kensuke that he was a member of the Knights Templar, who in turn was clinging to NOAH to stay relevant in a changing world. What they were going to talk about was not going to get out of the area unless one of them broke the ‘trick’ by shouting out loud.

“Pray tell, hijo,” slipping into Spanish with that last word, the man tried acting a little more friendly. “How much have you found out and who have you told?”

Kensuke gulped. Matteo had to reassure the kid somehow. Ken (Ikari) would object loudly to the slightest prospect of anything they'd do to him even if he wasn't innocent. So the LUXMAN Pilot lightly patted Kensuke’s shoulder and tried to reassure him by saying:

“Relax, you’re not in danger. If anything, we can use someone as inquisitive as you.”

“R-really?” Kensuke stuttered again before saying, “Thank you, sir; I’ll tell you everything, then.”

His following words revealed that despite attempts to tighten security, Shinji’s disappearance had not gone unnoticed, the existence of the miniature Spears of Longinus/Cassius/Marius and their capabilities was well-known around NERV’s other bases now, and also that information about Ken Illustrious Ikari’s real name and origins were spreading despite attempts to plug up the information leak.

Matteo looked at Alonso as the latter’s eyes hardened, then softened once more; the kid was innocent, after all.

Then the LUXMAN Pilot said to Kensuke, “You’re too good to be just a mechanic’s apprentice - We need an intern to help us plug up more leaks. So, why not join JHCI as one?”

Alonso smiled at that and said, “I could use someone to help me with cybersecurity, yes, especially as the next Angel is coming… Tomorrow.”

Matteo nodded and continued, “And after that, even more Angels. A neverending threat that, alongside a potential attempt at cutting off Tokyo-3’s power, hell, even assassination attempts aimed at key figures of both NERV and JHCI, we'll never run out of the need for more hands on deck. Still, you’re going to need to prepare yourself, kid; it’s going to be a bumpy ride.”

Kensuke Aida, never expecting his dreams to come true so easily, was starry-eyed and stunned silent for quite a while with the most excited expression he'd ever worn.

“However, we’re not your enablers. If you screw up, there will be consequences. Not death. But we both know that for Shinji’s sake, you wouldn’t screw up on purpose, That or betray us, right?”

The kid’s response was an immediate yet sloppy salute. In a clear tone, the boy before them half-yelled, half-affirmed, “Aye aye, sir! Kensuke Aida reporting for duty!”

Later that afternoon, their Ken would run up to them, saying that he and Mr. Tokita had come up with a bargain nigh identical to what he and Alonso had offered Kensuke just earlier.

“Guess great minds think alike, right?” was Alonso’s response. “Anyway, here’s hoping you, Major Katsuragi and the others got Asuka and Rei to coordinate well enough for tomorrow. We’ll need the extra days gained from defeating that Angel early to search for your Parallel Dad…"

 

Chapter Eleven

Ryoji Kaji knew that Asuka Langley Sorhyu hated him now for bringing her the bad news of the Evangelions’ true nature and NERV’s secret goals (as much of them as he was permitted to share, anyway). She had screamed at him, shouted that he should get out of her life and that they were through - As if they had anything with each other in the first place…

Nevertheless, from a NERV-assigned observation room in the Geofront, he sternly observed the battle wherein she and Rei, the one Asuka despised for being a ‘doll’, were fighting against Israfel. The Angel was formidable in that, like a starfish, it was able to split its body into identical copies of itself. But unlike the relatively harmless sea creature, the monstrosity was able to recombine itself or split again depending on the situation.

The location of the battle was where the Original Timeline's pilots had first encountered and lost against the thing: Suruga Bay, south of Tokyo-3. So far, the situation wasn't going as bad, but following so close to the occurrences of that world's showdown with Israfel, this fight necessitated a change in tactics.

Asuka in her Unit-02 insisted on being the one to cleave Israfel first, this time deliberately, while Rei in Unit-00 had its mech-sized progressive knife ready. Matteo in Project: LUXMAN was positioned with the JSSDF artillery units behind the lines, with the LUXMAN’s high-end Fusion Reactor able to power a Positron Sniper Rifle on its own without the need for Japan’s electric grid.

Asuka's hit connected, sending the Angel's slightly smaller halves separating. Kaji smiled as the music - a necessity in assisting the Evangelion Units to coordinate - began playing through the speakers. In a moment, the violent dance of blows began. Israfel’s main gimmick, in addition to being able to split apart, was to launch synchronized blows with its Alpha and Beta halves. Overwhelming it with numbers was not going to work. But where there was a will, there was a way. And humans are nothing if not persistent.

Have a taste of human ingenuity in their most desperate hour, He mused as Asuka and Rei matched Israfel Alpha and Beta blow for blow, meeting each punch with a counter and dancing around its kicks. Much to his surprise, Unit-02 and Unit-00 even managed to land a coordinated knee jab against their respective targets simultaneously. The hit against Alpha and Beta’s guts forced the two halves back into one form, an opening the JSSDF forces didn't let go of when they began showering it with a rain of ordnance that would have obliterated a regular battalion to dust.

Israfel was being forced back. Sadly, the two missed their chance at landing a good hit on the merging cores. Once more, it split apart to enact a swift offensive. But the girls were wiser to its movements now. Asuka and Rei, following the coordinating music's tempo, began to dance in unison, advancing against the Alpha and Beta halves while landing blow for blow, punch for punch. Their mechs were a whirlwind of grace and power, tearing away at Israfel's counteroffensive and hammering the Angel back into itself. Like a morbid attempt to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

One, two, and three punches landed in sync, finally forcing Israfel's halves back into themselves. And this time, as the Alpha and Beta Cores were about to merge, the girls whipped out their knives and drove reinforced metal into the orbs, fracturing them before they pushed the half-combined body into the bay. A moment of silence passed. Then, the cores detonated, sending boiling water high into the sky, as tall as mountains filled with fish and melted debris to fall across the countryside.

Good thing the area was evacuated, Kaji thought as success was reported in all open communications - A rare moment where the JSSDF genuinely shared NERV’s mood.

Speaking of the JSSDF, their superiors, the Japanese Government, did not like what he had reported to them about, well, everything. They also did not like the proof he showed them of his ‘absurd and ridiculous’ assertions, if only because of the political implications, which were dire.

"Hm?" He whirled around in response to approaching footsteps. Gaze meeting Shiro Tokita, Kaji spared the man and his mercenary, the Spanish Alonso Guttierez, one known as a modern-day member of the Knights Templar, a stern glance.

“It seems we won, but this victory won’t magically fix relations between the JSSDF and NERV." Shiro, the first to break the uneasy silence, stated. "I’ve just spent the past hour receiving threats from my former associates saying they’ll make me pay for my ‘treachery’. This, even though none of them cared to lift a finger when Commander Ikari was breathing down my neck - Heh... I should have known they were a cowardly nest of vipers back when I started the Project!”

Kaji almost smiled at hearing the man scoff, “So? What is JHCI doing right now, by the way? You’ve received two pilots from Vladivostok to pilot the two new LUXMAN Units. NOAH agents, I presume?”

Shiro nodded, “Yes, Gavril Suburov and his sister, Anna Suburova. The latter brought her son, Rafail - Although he prefers to be called Raphael - and the latter claims he wants to see Ken. Their ploy is obvious as can be.”

From the way, the JHCI CEO’s expression twisted in disgust, it was easy to see what NOAH’s ploy was, and Kaji made his opinion known right away.

"Using a fourteen-year-old kid as bait... Many people would find it manipulative. Personally, I think it disgusting…”

More proof that NOAH was not an organization of saints, and will have to be looked into once SEELE was taken care of. But that would be for later. A more pressing question was what Shiro and his bodyguard were doing here.

“You two came to watch Israfel’s defeat, yes?” he asked.

“Indeed," Shiro took the change in subject to mind. "However, I thought it best to brief you about things on my end as a trade for news of how the world’s been faring... I reckon the peace forged after Second Impact is falling apart and there’s been an uptick in minor conflicts and violent incidents all over the world as SEELE panics over how to beat both us and the Angels, leaving behind a power vacuum that even NOAH can not and will not fill because it is ultimately a regional organization. War is soon to be upon us, Ryoji Kaji.”

The JHCI Executive sighed in agreement, “Ken at least had the decency to be horrified when I told him about the latest incidents in Africa and Latin America caused by UN neglect. Now, the question for the local instability is how likely is it that the JSSDF strikes us earlier than expected.

“Sooner than later, I'm afraid," Kaji was not going to mince words. "There is a sizable faction in the Marines and Special Forces that says that they can just seize NERV, kill everyone within, then use the Spear Replicas my son - …my Parallel Son gave us for the purpose of warding them off to destroy the Angels themselves.”

Shiro sighed, “Amazing how resentment can make people take a mad course of action, isn’t it?”

No response was to be had as, immediately, the sirens began blaring again in the observation room. The two turned back to the screen, hoping against hope that they were not due for another unpleasant surprise…

-------

She and the Doll had just succeeded in defeating that damned Angel... On the first try no less! Had Asuka been a humble person, she'd chalked it up to teamwork, but no. She did her best. They can thank her for doing this much.

Then she was interrupted by the ‘Doll’ in question with the words:

"Something's coming." The 'Doll' cut her off as Unit-00 pointed upwards, to the moon that was visible in the sky.

For the moment that nothing happened, Asuka was tempted to scoff at her. But then, they saw it. A glint of crimson light that grew larger and brighter and-

"Shields up! NOW!" Neither of them wasted a breath to argue as their machines projected powerful AT-Fields in an instant.

Even Matteo in the LUXMAN had the Positron Cannon primed and ready. Guards up and on high alert, they waited for impact from an...

"What the...?" no one cared who said it, but the random speaker on the radio asked what they all thought. "Is that... an Eva?!!"

"Don't shoot!" A familiar voice cried out. The source? The landing Evangelion. "This is Ikari Shinji, returning to Earth from the secret moonbase. We stole an Evangelion and are about to descend. I repeat! Do not shoot! We're friendlies!"

"What the fuck are you on about, Shinji?!" Asuka, tension snapped by the appearance of that idiot, was quick to shout over the comms before anyone else could gather themselves. "And what the hell do you mean by a 'moonbase'?" Such a thing shouldn't have been possible. At least, Asuka thought it shouldn't. The only time she remembered anything being mentioned about Seele and the moon was in the Rebuild Timeline, but that was a Parallel Universe... 'Could it be that...?!'

She didn't dare say it on loudspeaker. The fact that Ikari Shinji of all people managed to steal an Eva aside, the implications of something advantageous to their enemy from another world also being present in this one was... well, it was bad. Very bad.

Major Katsuragi was the second person to snap out of shock and had her first instinct to assess the situation. "Shin-Pilot Ikari, that unit doesn't have a recognizable IFF signal from NERV's databank. What is its designation?"

"That's because Unit-13 does not, nor should, exist." A voice answered Misato's question. but it wasn't Shinji's. "Nagisa Kaworu speaking. Currently, I am co-piloting Eva Unit-13 alongside Shinji. Good day, everyone."

Somewhere in the command room, someone gulped. The air froze for those in the know of what they were seeing.

Unit-13, the cause of the Fourth Impact in the Rebuild Timeline. Piloted by Ikari Shinji, and the Angel named 'Nagisa Kaworu'.

"Give me one good reason not to engage you right here and now, bastard!" The only one to show any form of active intent to act on this information was one very pissed-off redhead as her machine quickly took a ready stance. "And you'd better convince me you're not about to screw us over or, so help me, I will rip you out of the cockpit with my Eva's hands!"

Eva Unit-13's touch-down was a tense one. Not a single person moved.

"Because if you try to hurt me, Asuka Langley Sorhyu, you would mean to hurt Shinji as well." That is until Kaworu's amused hum sounded for everyone to hear and shivers went down everyone's spine. "I have the Third Child in addition to an Eva unit I could use to trigger the Third Impact at any time I wish. Aside from that, I am also an Angel. So go ahead and try. That is if you wish to risk it."

The boy's tone remained calm, but the threat was clear as day. Not that Shinji wanted for it to go this way. "Enough! Asuka, please! Stand down. Kaworu means no harm. If he wanted to kill humanity, he would've already-"

"Shut up, you idiot!"

He did as asked, but Asuka was far too tense to handle this delicate situation. It was then that Kaworu took the initiative once more. "Had I wanted to destroy every single Lilin in existence even after meeting him, we wouldn't be having this exchange. You and the species you call ‘Humanity’ would already be extinct... But that is not my intent. I advise you stand down."

"That's enough, Unit-02!. Stand down!" Misato, living up to her rank, cowed the girl with the order before turning her attention to the other two. "If you came down directly from the moonbase, have you been pursued?"

The question was answered immediately. Alarms rang out as five bogies made themselves known. The camera's that immediately snapped to identify them showed up on-screen.

"Dammit!" Misato couldn't hold back the curse that spilled out, nor the nervous sweat that followed.

Mass-Produced Evangelion units, confirmation that Ken's videos of his world's 'Original Timeline' were on the mark, were coming down fast, faster than Unit-13 as well.

“Oh, joy,” Asuka's snappy sarcasm was for everyone to enjoy before her attention snapped to their marksman on standby. "Oy! You have the Positron Rifle! Shoot them down already!"

"Don't make it sound like it's easy," Matteo mumbled before a beam streaked through the sky, clipping one of the bogey Eva's and sending it crashing into the sea. Unfortunately, it was a costly shot, worth twice Japan's electric grid wattage this time. "There's your First Blood, missy. Now get moving, you two. The JSSDF are already prepping for ground combat!"

Misato took charge, immediately snapping out of it, “Unit-02, Unit-00, your objectives have changed - Secure Pilots Ikari and Nagisa Kaworu. Project: LUXMAN will provide covering fire. Take out the enemy forces pursuing them!”

 

Chapter Twelve

Author’s Note: Camael is an OC invented by one of my friends; all credit goes to him.

Shiro Tokita felt that despite being Ken’s ‘equal partner’, he had done nothing proactive beyond convincing Ritsuko Akagi to accept Ms. Ibuki’s crush and discuss the deteriorating geopolitical situation with Mr. Kaji.

Then again, Commander Ikari was busy enjoying his wife’s miraculous return while burning his remaining bridges with SEELE. This situation left him as the highest-positioned person in the ad-hoc alliance between the JHCI, NOAH, and NERV to address the world as it was getting worse.

As he saw the JSSDF forces assigned to help Asuka, Rei, and Matteo against Israfel withdraw at the sight of the Mass Produced Evangelion units, Shiro understood that Ken’s attempt to ‘fix’ things would have to rely on him to do what reasonable adults in power should be doing...

That being to ensure the world didn't fall apart. At least, not until the next generation succeeded them.

Turning to Kaji, Shiro spoke sternly. “The JSSDF wants no part in the fight against SEELE, do they? Another sign that ties between us are hemorrhaging worse than in the ‘Original World’.”

Kaji nodded to that. “We can’t count on them in open war, but with an Angel on our side, we may still have a chance. However, Section 2, even in cooperation with JHCI’s Public Relations division, is struggling in the political battlefield.”

On the screen which now formed their background, Asuka was tearing apart a Mass Produced Eva while Rei cooperated with Shinji and Kaworu’s Unit-13 to hold two more in place. Matteo in Project: LUXMAN took what chance he could to hit both foes with one beam from the Positron Cannon.

“Honestly,” Shiro sighed, “We need a way to regain public goodwill in the face of SEELE doing what it does best - Controlling the world order. Now that they’re recovering from shock and dismay faster than my partner expected, they should recall that they still have overwhelming resources and control of the information space.”

“Maybe an Angel on our side will give them pause…" Kaji opted to play the devil’s advocate. "That is, if he is on our side.”

"While I see your point, that's a tall order for our end." Shiro took the thought seriously. “Even if he is on our side, the fact he's an Angel works against us. No doubt, it will give our enemies more ammunition to portray us as unhinged rogues calling upon the enemies of humanity for aid... And, to those who don't know what we do, we'll look like the deranged ones… We already are to our would-be allies.”

The other man scoffed, albeit not completely out of sarcasm, “Do you think the fight is lost then? That our struggle is hopeless?”

Shiro replied with a scoff. “Not! If the JSSDF are against us, we’ll find other allies.” The battle in the background came to a close as the last remaining MP-Eva unit made to flee the battlefield, heading straight back to SEELE’s moonbase. As the two watched the fight begin to wrap up, the Executive continued, “The United States still has a base in Japanese territory, right?”

Kaji frowned and said, “The Americans are fierce defenders, but only for their interests. They resent the UN’s control no matter what benefits they get from it. But... SEELE must have focused on corrupting their upper echelon... At least, that's my suspicion.”

Shiro grinned at that. “Then we agree. NOAH has oil, and after they overthrew certain monarchies after the Second Impact, they have a near-absolute monopoly on a huge portion of the resource. We’ll use that to force the US President to break with SEELE and back us instead… Especially as elections in their country are near. No politician worth their popularity would want an energy crisis. If that isn't enough... there's always our Fusion Reactor technology.”

Alonso interrupted with an otherwise polite cough, “Mr. Tokita, we’re going to need optimal security arrangements, then. Also, you might need to learn how to use a Miniature Lance for self-defense if you insist on going yourself…”

------

Gendo and the returned Yui Ikari were meeting their son and their prospective son-in-law after Unit-13 was safely in the Geofront.

Both boys were unrepentant, clearly knowing that they held a more even position than most would assume. Now in their civilian outfits, Shinji Ikari stood beside Kaworu Nagisa as both of them stared him and Yui in the eyes; his wife was smiling faintly, preferring to be an amused spectator in this contest of wills.

His gaze turned to the Angel Boy, taking his measure before he broke the silence with a well-placed sentence, “We will assume that your defection from SEELE is genuine; your stated reasons for defection - A fascination with Lilin culture, an attraction to my son, and freedom from your creators - likewise. Now, tell me every detail of the enemy moonbase; defenses, technology, and any ‘trump cards’ they can bring against the NERV-JHCI alliance.”

The stream of information from Mr. Nagisa’s lips as the defector complied were most enlightening. Gendo had not been blind to the increasing traffic from the Baikonur Cosmodrome and Cape Canaveral over the last five years but had not expected SEELE to have committed to a strategy of digging deep into the lunar surface, where several hangars filled with Mass-Produced Evangelions had been readied to accompany Eva-13, which in this universe, had been grown over the last two years in the depths of the moonbase, as a contingency against any betrayal by NERV or sudden raid from NOAH (which had holdings close to the Cosmodrome).

He also revealed the existence of TASK FORCE DRAGNET, a sub-organization meant to capture ‘Extracanonical Natives’ like Matteo and Alonso and turn them to SEELE’s side; the men who had kidnapped Matteo during the early stages of the shift from Jet Alone to Project: LUXMAN were low-ranking members of DRAGNET who had blundered in their eagerness to gain a promotion.

“So SEELE has its own source of new concepts and ideas that are not present in my grandson’s world,” Gendo summed up the implications, “This means they’re not out of tricks.”

Yui, his returned wife, then chose to pitch in, asking in a calm, warm tone that he was glad to hear again, “Kaworu, have SEELE considered the prospect of Extracanonical Angels? Angels not predicted by the Dead Sea Scrolls? Or even worse, are they trying to create them when the threat of Extracanonical Native humans became evident?”

Gendo chilled as the defecting Angel nodded, then replied in his deceptively calm tone.

“They have two. One, Raphael, defected to NOAH. The other, Camael, Angel of Strength, is still loyal to them.”

Yui mildly tugged at his arm, whispering, “NOAH has sent someone named Rafail Suburov - Who prefers to be called Raphael - to meet our grandson. Do you think - ?”

But Shinji now chose to interrupt, saying, “Camael looks like Rei; exactly like her. She tried to stop me and Kaworu from escaping with Unit-13, but we managed to avoid her. Father… Kaworu told me that Angels and Humans are the same - No, that Humans are actually the Eighteenth Angel. Is that true?”

He nodded and said, “It is. Does that take away your determination to fight?”

Shinji stared him in the eye; it seemed that the past few days had built up his courage. Then his son said, “It doesn’t. They - The ‘regular’ Angels and Camael, are still trying to hurt us, to kill us. But, Father, you and Mother… Don’t ask me to kill another pilot, not even when an Angel has taken away their Evangelion.”

So he had heard of that incident from the Original Timeline, the tipping point where the boy began to spiral down to despair and even a touch of madness. That, according to his grandson from that world, had nearly destroyed Humanity, albeit in such a way that individual humans can come back with sufficient willpower.

Looking at Yui, who seemed inclined to grant their son’s wish, Gendo Ikari decided to make this concession in the name of keeping Unit-13 battle-ready and nodded, before saying, “Done. If that incident does happen in this world, we will find another way… Or have someone else be the executioner.”

Matteo Masuda, pilot of Project: LUXMAN, is an adult capable of handling such duties.

It was an indication that Shinji had grown up a little that he accepted this with a nod and only a small swallow of resignation. Now…

Yui looked back at him and said, “Ken must already be meeting with ‘NOAH’s Boy’. He is many things, but he’s not immune to losing his head when confronted with a sufficiently pretty boy or girl…”

------

Now that it was no longer needed to implant Adam into Gendo’s hand, something else needed to be done with the First Angel, namely put it in a vault deep in NERV’s HQ and use it as a lure for Angels until another way can be found to destroy it. Ken Illustrious Ikari, his objective, knew the location of that vault, but was not trusted with its keys; Gendo and his returned wife had limits to their newfound indulgence.

Good; while he, 'NOAH's Boy', was no longer loyal to SEELE or the larger cause of the Angels, he was still a replica of the latter, created by SEELE and defected to NOAH. The reason why?

Spoiler: Raphael

Originally Rize from Gundam Build Divers: Rize, now Rafail Suburov/Raphael

​

The human part of him wanted a family.

Then in addition to that, friends.

Then a wider community can support him and is supported in turn by his own work and abilities.

And as his first steps to achieve that, he walked towards where Ken Illustrious Ikari and Alonso Guttierez were accompanying one Shiro Tokita as they prepared to head for Tokyo-3’s Airport to jet towards Washington D.C.

Two professional mercenaries - Alonso’s comrades - pointed their miniature lances at him, then turned them away when they saw who he was. The objective of his mission, Ken, was now looking at him awestruck; his looks and his body language had attracted the other boy’s interest.

Perfect, he thought as he gave a slight bow, and introduced himself. “My name is Rafail Suburov, of NOAH, and I am the other defector from SEELE. You will need me against interception by the enemy should they threaten the trip.”

He stared directly at Ken, and despite his low bangs, the latter could see that he was testing him. Some of the arrogance he heard about seeped into the other boy’s tone, as the latter said in response:

“Let me guess, SEELE plans to blow us out of the sky, right? They’ve killed people before for lower stakes…”

Despite himself, Raphael nodded and said, “They definitely will. So, your Parallel Grandparents found the time to tell you who I am, right?”

“Actually,” Ken rubbed the back of his head, “They’re busy debriefing Parallel Dad and Parallel Uncle Kaworu. But I can guess - You’re an ‘Extracanonical Angel’, right?”

Raphael couldn’t help but smile, the sheer blatancy that the other boy - An actual child - had said those words with, accepting the truth of his nature with all its complications.

It reminded him that physically and mentally, Raphael was around his age; why else would he be chosen to get closer to Ken?

The other boy was moving closer, close enough to extend a hand and say, “Well, if you’re coming with us, let’s go - The plane is about to go in five minutes and we can’t stay a little longer!”

Raphael clasped Ken’s hand in his own, suddenly feeling as though he, who sought the society of the Lilin, was being dragged by a maelstrom of confident energy radiated by his peer.

For who else could Ken be, to trigger a massive swing in mindset and mood in such a short time?

------

Camael was filler. A travesty against her fellow Angels and an abomination to Humanity. Nevertheless, as the Angel of Strength, with a very different form of might from the more ‘physical’ Angels, she served the strongest loyally as long as they kept their place.

And for now, the strongest was SEELE, her creators; the latter was not so stupid as to squander her lingering loyalty to them for giving her life.

A life spent in a Rei Clone stolen from Dr. Akagi and Professor Fuyutsuki’s nose; the nature of her vessel was the only thing unsatisfactory about this arrangement. Nevertheless, she would make do.

Now, as the NERV Jet and its escorts flew to America to undermine SEELE’s hold on that country, she flew towards another destination; the volcanic crater of Mount Asama, Japan.

There, she would awaken Sandalphon, a natural Angel listed in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

And she’d show those who sought to ‘fix’ the tragic story slated for this world that they cannot do so without consequences…

 

Chapter Thirteen

Mount Asama had erupted before it was time, and from the flow of lava and ash crawled out Sandalphon, the Eighth Angel, now grown into hastened adulthood and advancing towards Tokyo-3.

Coming towards it were the three Evangelions, Unit-00, Unit-02, and the newly-stolen Unit-13; all three machines were hooked up not to NERV’s power grid, but three flying LUXMAN units, mundane mecha built by Japan Heavy Chemical Industries. Now that JHCI had NERV’s foot off its neck, it could make machines that weren’t just the Jet Alone or the first LUXMAN.

Asuka Langley Sorhyu resented the presence of extras threatening to take her victory. Still, she could appreciate the free electricity the LUXMAN units gave her and how ‘Idiot Shinji’ finally got a spine as well as a new Evangelion and… A guy.

She didn’t know whether to see that last part as a spiteful gesture, considering how she and that idiot did have sort of ‘tension’ in that Ken brat’s world. In multiple timelines, even! Gross.

Either way, Sandalphon was crawling towards them, preceded by a vast cloud of volcanic ash and noxious gases that lowered visibility to almost zero; not that a little smoke was stopping her.

LCL has its perks, doesn’t it? Asuka smirked to herself as she thought that. The Angel was hot enough to glow even through the smoke, smoke that would stop being a problem once -

Major Katsuragi's voice called out, “All right; Units-00, 02, and Co-Pilot Nagisa in 13, put up your AT-Fields!”

“All right!” she couldn’t help but exclaim as her Evangelion grew brightly, outshining Rei’s and only paling a little before Nagisa’s because the latter was cheating with his Angel powers, and her AT-Field burst out in a wave, blasting off the raining ash to reveal their foe, a large fishy beast that looked like the one she had killed single-handedly in the Pacific (okay, with some insignificant help from that idiot).

The enemy was pathetically half-swimming, half-crawling through the flow of lava that was pooling around the ground and turning the land into a twisted hellscape. However, Unit-13 was the best suited to carrying heavy loads and had an apartment-sized coolant tank attached to its upper back, hooked up to a hose ready to spray liquid nitrogen, a hose cradled in its second set of arms.

Here’s hoping that Ken Brat’s tips work, she thought to herself as she pulled out Unit-02’s Sonic Glaive, ready to chop off the beast’s arm once it swung at her -

It didn’t; instead, the long limb darted over her shoulder, stretching to a disproportionate length that she was sure broke some sense of symmetry, and struck at the LUXMAN Unit flying above her, only to find the four-fingered ‘hand’ at the end of the appendage bouncing off the robot’s already-activated Anti-L System.

She heard its pilot - That Matteo guy from earlier - grunt, saying, “Damn it, that’s hot!”

Asuka opened her mouth to say, “Guess that means your fancy barriers can’t -”

Then she froze up a little and said incredulously, “Wait, you’ve been struggling in this godforsaken heat in normal cockpits?!”

Okay, she had to respect that, especially as the answer was:

“Yes, Pilot Sorhyu,” before the LUXMAN Unit began pumping energy into Unit-02, and Matteo added, “Now go get 'em.”

Her sonic glaive was already swinging to cut Sandaphon’s distended arm in half as she said, “Gladly! Now let me show you what I’ve got!”

That Doll was already charging in, hacking at the Angel’s other arm just as those two lovebirds were spraying more coolant at the foe, using the principles of thermal expansion to make sure that its superheated shell and the molten rock it bathed in were blowing up, cracking apart, and making it easy prey for her to score a long, gaping gash just below its false eye and its core that was promptly sprayed with more coolant that widened the wound - Idiot Shinji was good for something after all.

But she was going to get the kill, just like last time.

Unit-02 brought up its sonic glaive, then swung it down at the Angel’s core, smashing and slashing it to bits at the same time.

The resulting explosion shook the LUXMAN Units, who were forced to land on the ground and hide behind the larger Evangelions. Perfect; unvarnished victory was hers’ and hers’ alone - The others were only providers of support.

A curtain of black cut off her gloating, as the volcano spat out more burning smoke and sparks that mixed with those from the burning forests around them to darken the air more than all of their combined AT-Fields can push away.

Asuka frowned and blurted out to Matteo, “Not another easy victory f----d up by consequences almost as bad as losing!”

The 28-year-old replied, “That’s been our campaign so far,” before loudly coughing; apparently, the LUXMAN’s filters were overwhelmed.

Asuka realized that the Anti-L Systems did not work on the molten lava the Evangelions stood in, but the weather was not safe either.

“All right, folks,” Misato’s voice broke in, “Time to evacuate - We’ve won!”

How? she asked, but it was Co-Pilot Nagisa who answered that thought (hopefully without reading it) by saying:

“Let me take care of this.”

And despite her continued skepticism of his loyalties and what he might do with his Angel powers, Asuka had to grudgingly admit that Shinji’s new boyfriend was useful for clearing the skies and also moving the lava flow away from where it had been congealing around her Evangelion’s feet; let’s just say that next time they got into a similar situation, she’d requisition heat-resistant mech-sized boots and have both JHCI and NERV foot the bill.

“That’s so awesome, Kaworu!” Idiot Shinji was now saying in a burst of adoration. “So, are we now going home?”

Major Katsuragi answered, “Seems so, but the premature eruption of Mount Asama is going to take days, maybe weeks, to calm down. And if prevailing winds blow the ash and fumes towards Tokyo-3…”

“The LUXMAN Units will be returning to supervise evacuation and firefighting afterward,” Matteo involved himself in the conversation. “CEO Tokita gave us a firm but open order to prevent a PR Disaster through any means possible, so we’ll be back.”

Asuka was incredulous, “With normal air conditioning and smoke filters?! That’s ridiculous!”

Then she saw a chance to one-up the other pilots and NERV, saying, “These pieces of junk are going to need my help; permission to accompany them in their ‘mercy mission’?”

“Negative, Pilot Sorhyu -” Misato was then interrupted by.

“I think it’s a good idea, Major Katsuragi,” Shinji chose to involve himself further; proof that making out with an Angel had stiffened his spine. “Now that we have the LUXMAN Units’ Fusion Reactors hooked up to us, we can operate out of HQ longer, right?”

“How the outside world sees us has become important,” Wait, was That Doll taking her side? Pigs must be flying! “I believe we can spend a few hours of community service now that the Angel is defeated.”

And now Kaworu weighed in, saying, “I would like to preserve the lake where I met Shinji Ikari, yes.”

After a moment of indecision, Major Katsuragi spoke, “Fine! But if there’s an emergency, I expect you back ASAP, okay?!”

And that was that.

------

The President of the United States was the first Asian American to be elected to that position. Disliked by the ‘Old Men’ of Congress and skeptical of the United Nations, he had nevertheless been forced to give many concessions to the latter to the point where he was publicly derided as a ‘loser’ by his own citizens.

Shiro Tokita had thought to turn him against SEELE; if he was a member, then he clearly was not a true believer in their cause and resented their exploiting America for their own goals. If he wasn’t a member, then he must seek to try and supplant them.

As he met the President, the JHCI Executive expected no surprises and was proven wrong when, after exchanging pleasantries like, “Greetings,” and, “Weather’s been f-----d up since Second Impact, right?”, he dropped a bombshell of his own.

“The price for my betrayal of SEELE is American Leadership of the World. No more, no less.”

Then he elaborated, turning his mostly smooth, only slightly wrinkled face towards him, “I know what you came here for, I know what you plan to blackmail me with. But I can do better.”

The President continued, “SEELE is a conspiracy that has infiltrated every facet of society that matters. In America, that means the corporations, certain… preachers who unironically think the ‘Angels’ are real Angels, and Wall Street financiers whose workings are as arcane as, well, the Corpus Hermeticum and even less comprehensible. Oh, and Hollywood; do not forget Hollywood.

“If you want me to go up against such a conspiracy, give America the World. The UN HQ returns to US Territory, America is liberated from its military obligations to it, and mandatory financing of its operations is no longer an option.”

He then continued, “If anything, the Russians and Chinese would ask for even worse; that all SEELE assets, including the mystical ones, be transferred over to them so they can conduct the Human Instrumentality Project on terms that benefit only them; aka turn everyone but them into orange tang. I’m merely interested in material power; territory, money, and bullets.”

Shiro’s response was to sigh, give the US President a pointed look, and say flippantly, “It seems we’re giving Fusion Reactor tech to everyone but America, then. And LUXMANs to certain groups in a region of the world not exactly known for their love of the United States.”

The President brushed back his slick black hair, before giving a loud guffaw and saying,"Just because I talked about betraying SEELE doesn't mean you can talk about screwing my country over. No, here's what I can do - I'll broker a truce between SEELE and your silly little counter-conspiracy club while the Angel War is on. Then once it's over and we don't risk an apocalypse any more, you and your Dimensional Travel and Artificial Angel will reconsider my offer."

He got up and looked out the window of the Oval Office, and turned his back on them to continue, "After all, are you in a position to be choosy about who you can ally with? This is the reason why you can't just kill me to get someone else more welcoming to your plans, right? I'm the best you're ever going to get."

Shiro confirmed such a statement with, “You’re right. We do need each other… Or rather, we would if not for the fact that you admitted wanting to betray SEELE to our faces. Then again, you can probably pass it off as you leading us on by merely pretending to betray your backers and supporters, but there’s a problem with that.”

And with a gesture, Ken teleported to his side, carrying a miniature Spear of Marius in his right hand and a sheaf of papers and microfilms in his left.

The latter handed over the papers to the President, who looked through them quickly and found them to be records of his extended plans to betray SEELE and the United Nations and SEELE’s own knowledge that they knew about said plans all this while and were stringing him along.

A pause, before the President said,"What's this? How did you even get this?! The Reborn Order of Assassins just hands out their secret leverage to the kid?"

Unspoken was 'How many of them did you have to kill until they were intimidated enough to pony up the files?'

Ken was going to say something, but Shiro gestured to the boy to let him be the one to say:

“Actually, it was the Bektashi Order,” the JHCI executive then continued, “We also got help from the Servants of Melek Taus and the Brotherhood of the Holy Speculre. Either way, SEELE knew you were a traitor from the start and now we can protect you from the consequences. It can even be on equitable terms…”

There was no other choice but for the President to agree, was there?

 

Chapter Fourteen

Kozo Fuyutsuki could not get used to the return of his old student, nor the circumstances that had brought her back. So he did the obvious thing and asked for a meeting with ‘Ken Illustrious Ikari’, who now frequently visited from the JHCI HQ at Tokyo-2 (bullet trains were a wonder, weren’t they?) as soon as the boy was available.

Ken promptly met him in his office, and Fuyutsuki couldn’t help but be surprised; he really did look like the unfortunate Maria Iscariot, the one who died in a soul transfer experiment a long time ago… But succeeded in moving her soul into a clone in Ken’s world, where she had married Shinji.

His first remark at seeing the boy before his desk was, “So it is true; you really do look like her…”

Maria Iscariot had been a good student, one who after her heartbreak over Yui choosing Gendo, had thrown herself into her research. Research that turned out to be about moving the soul, which she had tried to use on herself to groom Yui’s son in a twisted retelling of ‘The Tale of Genji’.

For a brief moment, he stared intently at Ken, half-expecting him to grow a second head or two more arms. This was caught by the boy, who said frankly, but who raised his tone in a way that proved he was still a child:

“Yes, my mother was a dirty creep. She still provided more support to my father in his darkest hour than anyone else, even Uncle Kaworu. And her support worked.”

Fuyutsuki was ready with a gentle rejoinder, one that cut even more precisely because the tone was mild and unassuming, “But you don’t believe that justified her actions and intentions, don’t you?”

And he followed up with, “I watched the videos of the ‘Original Timeline’ of your universe, plus the ‘Rebuild Timeline’. There was every chance that the Human Instrumentality Project in our world would have failed, and Humanity in its current form, which you claim to value, would be saved. And even if there wasn’t, anyone else could have stepped in to prevent Third Impact from spreading out of this universe and into yours’ if your people couldn’t just cut off the latter from such contagion.”

Now was the time for his voice to harden a little, as though he was lecturing an errant student, “So tell me, are you trying to justify your existence, as well as the actions that led to it?”

Ken nodded, trying to suppress a shudder - probably anger - and gave an affirmative answer.

“Yes. Others might be fine with it, but I am not. Mother genuinely supported Father and let him grow as a person, that was more than others gave him, but that does not excuse the fact that she sought him as a rebound in the first place and I exist because of those polluted intentions.”

The boy then glared at him and said, “My father cried and wept when people and circumstances hurt him; anger was futile. It’s the opposite for me; crying and weeping over my mother’s disgusting actions is fruitless, but anger - Cold anger - and seeking a measure of vengeance isn’t. That’s why I was born with her genius, her skill at intrigue, and loyalty to my father and his memory.”

He was half-boasting now as he followed up with, “My father is now happy, he’s grown, and he’s become a more accepting person who can face life as it is, without trying to escape into a fantasy of how it should be. But while I love my mother, I cannot forgive her wants and goals back then. And so I will create a world - Multiple worlds - where my mother has to share Shinji Ikari, becoming only one of his many sources of happiness and not even the most important.”

Fuyutsuki smiled faintly; the boy had his emotional vulnerabilities like any other person and was not afraid to show them and dare his opponents to go after them and risk being clawed. How like a cat.

Very well, so be it; he was old and can take a few scratches.

“You brought Yui back; she sides with you and has brought Ikari - Gendo - over to your faction. Ikari himself is conflicted about the possibility of going against you as you resemble Yui - including her more megalomaniac desires - more than Shinji does, at least on the surface,” he stated dryly, laying out what he had found out about the boy, in this very conversation, to his face. “You have a claim to the loyalty of most of NERV and JHCI and a personal magnetism that magnifies that claim. Even I am impressed by how you tug at people’s heartstrings as a matter of instinct.”

He then fixed his eyes on Ken and said, “But you are not Yui. You are not Maria Iscariot. You are not Gendo or Shinji. You are an untested little boy who is lashing out at the world, in your own way, and your exceptional aptitude and the fact that you pursue goals that many people would regard as ‘good’ does not change the fact that, just like SEELE, you are trying to mold the world to fit your shape and disregarding others’ feelings.”

Following up with a long, drawn-out sigh, Fuyutsuki said, “It would be good for you to face actual opposition once in your life. Your Grandmother thinks so as well; you may succeed in this world, or the next, or even the one after that, but at the state you’re in right now, there will be a point where you fail, and like the child you are, destroy everything in a fit of pique due to finding the taste of defeat strange.”

The Vice Commander frowned faintly, then continued, “You know that I am right; you are smart enough to know it.”

Ken bowed low enough to hide his eyes, then mumbled, “I don’t like losing. I don’t like being defeated.”

Fuyutsuki spoke bluntly, “And yet you know you’ll grow from it. So I won’t console you. As it is, even those who had benefited from your success - Shiro Tokita and JHCI - are burdened with the work of dealing with the consequences of your actions. You’ve been using them as shock absorbers; Ken Illustrious Ikari. If you can’t take hits, then appreciate those who are taking hits from you.”

-------

The American Government had been pacified, and its might and resources were transferred to the Anti-SEELE Coalition formed by JHCI, NOAH, and NERV.

Yet SEELE controlled the UN Headquarters, which was in Tokyo-2. Tokyo-2 was where Japan Heavy Chemical Industries’ HQ stood, a now-unwelcome foothold on their doorstep.

On the eve of Matarael’s attack on NERV, the Japanese Prime Minister signed orders nationalizing the Corporation, taking advantage of the fact that while NERV legally owned it now, it was not NERV and did not share the legal protections the latter had as part of the UN. That meant that the Government of Japan could take JHCI away from it at any time, and had been stopped only by lack of knowledge about their foe’s sudden new capabilities.

That lack of knowledge had been reduced over the past few weeks, despite NERV and NOAH working together to stanch the bleed of information from them to SEELE, and now the latter can begin its counterattack.

Shiro Tokita had moved several assets, including the blueprints for the Anti-L System and the completed LUXMAN units, and he and his security detail were in Tokyo-3 at present. Kensuke Aida, whom his subordinates had recruited to help prevent more information leaks, was currently busy at Tokyo-3 High School and was preparing for the Angel attack tomorrow.

Therefore the seizure of JHCI’s HQ went without a hitch; only the local Police and a small contingent of JSSDF Special Forces were required to take ownership of the building and what sensitive documents were left.

The laboratories and mech-sized factories for building new Anti-L Systems and LUXMAN tech were a slightly more challenging target, but even then, all it took were a dozen VTOLs loaded with troops and the threat of force to take them and the half-completed mechs and intimidate the personnel into continuing their construction - Anyone who gave out that they knew more than JHCI’s official version of events were to disappear.

After that was simply firing Shiro Tokita from the now-nationalized JHCI, and giving over control of the Corporation to one of their pawns in the JSSDF, shifting the balance of power between NERV and them decisively.

The weak link in the Counter-Conspiracy had been broken; let NERV have what JHCI assets were in Tokyo-3 as they can no longer replace them.

SEELE’s Council had been shaken out of their complacency and had struck back with force and finesse. Their greatest foe, Gendo Ikari, had lost his edge with the return of his wife; they, however, had regained it.

Especially as they now knew what his grandson, from a Parallel Universe, was capable of…

------

The next day, Shiro Tokita was taking advantage of the fact that the Geofront’s power was not cut off to send an email to his new ally, the US President, saying that Lockheed Martin now had the blueprints of the Anti-L Systems and the LUXMAN units, in return for him getting a vast number of shares in it. It won’t compensate for the loss of his company, but it was a buffer against further bleedout and a platform to counterattack.

Not that SEELE hadn’t won this round, especially as he had to focus on defeating Matarael lest the Angel destroy all of Humanity, which in turn was more likely than expected as Camael had already made her appearance, flying above it as the spider-like beast approached Tokyo-3, with the local JSSDF forces having ‘deserted’ their positions as part of a plan to make NERV’s life more difficult.

Three Evangelions and Matteo’s LUXMAN unit were already charging out to meet the two foes, while the other two were powering NERV with their Fusion Reactors and Raphael was being held in reserve.

“You’re going to die, Imitation Doll!” Asuka Langley Sorhyu screamed out as Unit-02 fired its Pallet Rifle into the air, forcing Camael, who looked like Rei but had the colors of the plug suit she wore inverted (the white parts were black and the black parts were white), to deftly dodge with contemptuous ease before making a slashing gesture with her left hand to unleash a burning white crescent of energy that would have split her in half at the waist if not for Matteo breaking formation to shield her with his LUXMAN’s Anti-L Systems.

“Are you okay?!” Shiro overheard him say even as Rei, Shinji, and Kaworu compensated for the break in formation; Rei took up the task of shooting Camael down from the sky and Shinji and Kaworu in Unit-13 took the responsibility of grappling Matarael to the ground, with Kaworu nullifying its AT-Field.

Asuka was back in the fight with Unit-02, shooting in the air alongside Rei to take down the latter’s lookalike. She was howling out, “I may not be permitted to turn that Doll into a Swiss cheese, but I am permitted to fill you with holes!”

Camael’s response to that was to swat the entire double volley out of the air with a telekinetic shield, not caring that the bullets were falling all over Tokyo-3; or was she relishing that some of them might endanger the shelters?

Then as Matarael’s head crawled out of Unit-13’s grasp to spit acid at the Evangelion’s shoulder, melting off armor plates and flesh, Camael stretched out her arms and hands, releasing two beams each towards Asuka and Rei’s Evangelions.

Both of them screamed out, as Shiro heard Ritsuko say over the speakers, “That beam - It’s identical to the data Ken shared about Arael!”

Matteo was already pushing himself forward to extend his Anti-L Barrier in front of Asuka and Rei’s Evangelion units after hearing that, shouting, “Units 02 and 00, behind me!”

Neither of them protested as they used the smaller Mech and the barrier it projected, once crimson, now clear, as a makeshift barricade, catching their breath… Even as Camael, her attention now free, pried Unit-13 off Matarael, who had been bleeding LCL from prog knife wounds, with telekinesis alone.

Just how strong was she?

 

Chapter Fifteen

Here she is again; does she hate Asuka or something? Shinji thought about Camael as she tossed around Unit-13 like a ragdoll with her telekinesis, before Kaworu activated his own AT-Field and cut off her invisible grip. She looks like Rei and acts like Rei a little, but she is as eager to pick fights as Asuka is.

Then he thought to himself, Best not to let Asuka know I was thinking that; she’d be livid.

Acting in unison with his co-pilot, Shinji resumed the assault on Matarael, the side of Unit-13 he controlled having in its upper and lower arms a sonic axe and a prog knife that was larger than usual. Just like last time, he and Kaworu broke through the Angel’s defenses, with the sonic axe barely missing the behemoth’s core as it plunged into the flesh of its main body.

From the wound, however, burst forth what seemed to be black polyps, growths of inflamed flesh, which spread forth like barnacles throughout the sonic axe’s blade and shaft, forcing Unit-13 to let go as the polyps began breaking down the structure of the weapon and absorbing the materials to regenerate Matarael’s wound.

“I see, so that’s the upgrade Camael gave the Angel of Rain,” he heard Kaworu speak in his typical melodious voice, as more polyps emerged from the rest of the monster’s main body, popping off and floating in the wind.

Kaworu put up a larger AT-Field, only to find the floating balls of flesh dissolving it, neutralizing the barrier in the same way a normal Evangelion can negate an Angel’s shield.

Now the polyps were breaking through the armor and infecting the flesh beneath and it was painful and gross as Unit-13’s arms and chest were covered in a carpet of black growths -

Don’t worry, Shinji, Kaworu’s voice cut in telepathically as his Co-Pilot’s AT-Field suddenly changed to a brilliant white, burning off the attempt at infection, The novelty of this surprise has run out. Now is our turn.

Several units of rocket artillery rose out of the ground a second later; only instead of firing rockets, these fired miniature spears, the very same ones given by Kaji Jr., at Camael as she was lifting up a skyscraper to smash through Matteo’s LUXMAN unit and the Anti-L System that held back her ‘Arael Beams’.

Camael’s reaction was to, “Tsk,” then turn towards Unit-02 and Asuka, saying, “Self-absorbed. Arrogant. Yet with a void in one’s heart one refuses to acknowledge. You look down on others to feel full for a second then run empty again the very next moment; how contemptible.”

Then she flew away and left Matarael to its fate.

Shinji was surprised to hear Asuka, after thirty seconds of incoherent ranting about how Camael had no right to talk to her like she knew better, say to Matteo:

“All right, you Junk Pilot! As thanks for the save, you get to cook that Spider with that Positron Gun you keep boasting about! Better than letting Idiot Shinji and his Angel Boy have the kill…”

A beam of Positrons then pierced Matarel’s core through and through, ending the Angel of Rain’s brief reign of terror.

Nevertheless, Shinji couldn’t help but remark:

“Never thought you’d actually give the kill shot to anyone else, Asuka, even if it was to spite me and Kaworu.”

Then he asked more seriously, considering that Camael had used two ‘Arael Beams’ on her and Rei, “Are you okay?”

“I don’t need your concern, Idiot Shinji!” was the angry reply. “Why not ask that Doll instead?!”

Rei piped up, “I’m okay. Matteo in the LUXMAN unit shielded us from the worst.”

Shinji couldn’t help but smile as he blurted out, “Good. And thanks for the help, Matteo.”

“Don’t worry about it,” the adult Pilot responded, “Glad I can pull my weight. By the way, Ken and Raphael - Well, Rafail - will be joining you guys tomorrow at school. You guys have been studying, right?”

“What?!” he heard Asuka say. “What’s he going to mess up now?!”

Shinji glanced at Kaworu’s side of their joint cockpit and gave a visible shrug. I guess it’s time to prepare for some awkward meetings…

------

Rafail Subrov, aka Raphael, observed the tensions as he and Ken, now in school uniforms (he had changed his hair to black using his Angel powers, by the way) sat on the other side of the room from Shinji, Kaworu, Asuka and Rei.

Despite various developments, it was clear that the Children had not warmed up to Ken and by extension, him, for reasons Ken himself understood. And for all his bluster and his recognition that his actions had trade-offs, Raphael can tell that Ken did not like the borderline enmity Asuka treated him with and the others’ wariness of him.

And that enmity spiked a little when Ken and he scored a 100 on their pop quiz without much difficulty.

“What?!” Asuka exclaimed in fury at Ken even though she had a 95, “Don’t tell me you’re some genius ace as well as an intruding pest! Heck, it’s hard to believe you and your ‘best friend’ got these scores without using super-tech to peek at the answers, all things considering…”

Okay, he was going to have to make peace, for the sake of his boyfriend. But Ken was too prideful, some might say even conceited, to make the first move. And Raphael did not know enough about other adolescents to learn how to build bridges well.

But he knew who could, and so when lunch hour arrived, he excused himself from Ken by saying he had to go to the bathroom… While at the same time filching the latter’s smartphone from the latter’s belt - The latter would forgive if it was for a good cause, after all.

Once he found himself with some privacy on the top floor, he called the person whose triumph had made all of this possible: Adult Shinji Ikari from the Rebuild Timeline, to ask him how he could engineer a social encounter between his fellow kids that won’t end in disaster…

------

Ken saw Raphael come down the stairs, carrying some very familiar-looking boxes and books - Wait, were those?!

“You’re forgiven for filching my smartphone; are those what I think they are?” he asked his boyfriend.

Raphael’s nod was worth a hundred words, as Ken took the books labeled: Warhammer 40,000: 10th Edition and Codex: Leagues of Votann, then glanced at the rulesets, then gave him a thumbs-up, before saying:

“I think we have a free period in the afternoon, just before classes end. Let’s show these off!”

He then looked around for eavesdroppers before giving his boyfriend a light peck on the cheek and saying, “Thank you. And I’ll thank Dad too for the gift.”

Ken knew why Raphael had asked, but deep inside, felt fear that the other boy’s gambit would not work or instead make things worse - Aunt Asuka’s ire was hard to mollify, especially with her being a teenager in this universe…

------

Raphael was observing the life signs of the small crowd that had gathered around him and Ken as the two played against each other around a small table which now had little model armies of Leagues of Votann (Space Dwarfs) played by Ken and an army of Sisters of Battle played by him (hey, he liked red and flames).

The two, after making sure that they were playing according to the rules for a 1000-point game, prepared to roll their dice and just on cue -

“Hey, what are you two idiots doing?!” Asuka yelled at them after pushing through the crowd. “And hey, is it that British Game? Third Edition, right? Before Second Impact hit?”

Ken was about to respond, but Raphael lifted up his hand so he could initiate the conversation instead and clarified for the other boy.

“Tenth Edition, actually; I think you know how we got it,” Raphael then rose up from his seat and said, “Want to play? The Sisters have a newly competitive Army List this time around.”

Asuka took one glance at the Triumph of Saint Katherine model that the boy was using as his HQ Unit in the game, and said, “Sure. Stand behind my back and give me pointers on how the rules have changed where… my opponent came from, can you do that? If so, thanks!”

After the end of the free period and the after-school time reserved for clubs, and just before the bell rang for dismissal, Asuka was gloating about how her Sisters of Battle Army finally destroyed Ken’s optimally-built, rule-lawyered, Leagues of Votann force.

“Ha, take that, asshole!” the redhead was saying, “It only took me a couple of tries, but I did it! I won and now I’m going to rub my victory in your face!”

Ken risked ruining everything by acting like, well, Ken, and pointing out, “It took four tries, not two. And I won three of them.”

Asuka twitched in rage, let the bell finally ring, then said so loud that she could be heard over the bell’s noise, “Then let’s continue this in Misato’s apartment! This time, you’re permitted to come!”

Shinji then went over to Raphael and whispered, “Was this your plan all along?”

The slightest rise and fall of his chin was affirmative enough.

The thumbs-up he got the very next moment was a pleasant surprise.

------

Misato Katsuragi found her apartment host to more children than the room can normally take, as not only were Shinji, Rei, Kaworu, and Asuka inside, but also the unlikely quartet of Toji, Kensuke, Rafail, and Ken (Illustrious Ikari), all who were preparing to play That British Game.

“Make sure to clean up before you leave!” she said as she prepared to leave the kids ‘unattended’ in order to meet up with Kaji - NERV Section 2 Personnel were already standing guard with miniature spears in hand.

Honestly, despite not wanting to see her apartment overran by too many visitors, Misato was glad that an attempt was being made to dampen tensions in the group. Of course, it was an Angel, albeit a ‘counterfeit one’ who thought up that bright idea and a Parallel Universe visitor who had inflamed the tensions in the first place, but she appreciated the thought.

What she did not appreciate were rumors that SEELE, the true enemy of Humanity, was rebuilding its web of mystery.

The other branches of NERV were non-committal in their stance on Commander Ikari and his returned wife, with NERV-Germany telling them bluntly, Save us from Sahaquiel and we’ll talk.

How insubordinate! she fumed as she went to her car and started it up, driving it to the love hotel she had promised to see Kaji in… And which Ritsuko and Maya, who had apparently taken Ken’s advice and gotten together, had ‘scouted out’ beforehand and made sure was safe.

Honestly, she was glad her best friend had actually found happiness, albeit in an unexpected manner.

Not that the kid who started all this isn’t a rotten shipper who is too young to meddle in adults’ love lives… she thought as she continued her trip, enjoying the warm night.

A few minutes later, she arrived at the Love Hotel and found the building unnaturally silent - Something was wrong.

She checked the radio; it was jammed just like every other means of communication.

Drawing her gun plus a Miniaturized Spear of Marius wrapped in one of those big golf bags, Misato tip-toed out of the car and entered the building, which seemed to be cleared of all human occupants, even maintenance staff. She knew she had to go to find Kaji, fast.

She entered the room her Ex-Boyfriend had asked her to meet him in, only to find only one person inside, and it wasn’t him.

Instead, it was a mirror image of herself, a doppelganger who got her exact appearance right, only she wore what seemed to be a black bodysuit with fuzzy, glowing red lines.

“Hello there,” said the clone (?), “My name is Kagami. Kagami Katsuragi. I’ve been tasked with replacing you. By the way, Mr. Ryoji is safe, but he won’t be if you resist...”

------

SELEE’s TASK FORCE DRAGNET had initially been organized, under a different name, in order to ward off the threat of ‘Native Extracanonicals’ who had the potential to alter the prophesied course of events. Later, it was tasked with co-opting these potentially dangerous beings so that new ideas and strategies, for progressing the Human Instrumentality Project can be conceived and implemented.

With NOAH’s exponential growth in power and its alliance with the ‘Counter-Conspiracy’, the members of TASK FORCE DRAGNET had acquired more importance in SEELE as a whole; their creation, Camael, had been the most effective single actor against these rebels and their Multiversal support.

Their leader, Kassa Makonnen of Ethiopia, was now supervising SEELE’s efforts to regain lost prestige, lost mystery, and its lost sense of threat. Despite his relatives all choosing NOAH, Kassa had chosen to believe that SEELE and the Human Instrumentality Project were the best options for Humanity to reach its happy ending, twisted as his definition of ‘happy ending’ might be to others.

He had ordered Camael’s creation. He had supervised the theft of DNA samples of people who might be important to NERV in the future. And while it took a lot of persuasion, he had persuaded his superiors to move to The Moon and the safety it represented.

Honestly, he felt like the underdog in this situation; then again, Ethiopians were used to being underdogs…

Originally Thomas Sinclair from Killzone: Shadow Fall, now Kassa Makonnen of TASK FORCE DRAGNET​

 

Chapter Sixteen

Camael felt she had at least burnt that redhead, metaphorically if not literally. As she floated to meet with Kassa in SEELE’s moonbase, she smiled to herself about how she had exposed Asuka Langley Sorhyu’s flaws to her own ‘team’, a team she had viewed as a captive audience for her own ‘greatness’ and ‘awesomeness’, but which now saw her insecurities many times over.

That redhead’s strength was real but hollow. Some areas were genuinely strong but others were… Not. Such a mix of strength and weakness was strange, uncomfortable, maybe anathema if she wanted to be poetic.

That reminded her; that Kagami was also weak in some ways, but didn’t lie about her strength. She was an adequate liar in other ways, so she would be useful in replacing Misato alongside the other duplicate; Modoki was his name, right?

They had not replaced Ritsuko Akagi and her new girlfriend; the ambush would not have worked without a genuine recommendation from the two.

Either way, she saw Kassa walking towards the Moonbase’s shipyards and drydocks, where those vessels were being prepared.

Approaching him before she saluted, she asked, “Did all go well?”

The Ethiopian man nodded and said, “It has; Ryoji Kaji and Misato Katsuragi have been successfully taken and will be brought to the Moonbase shortly. Their doubles do not have their memories, nor do their skills and competencies map out one hundred percent - This was another reason why we did not simply take Dr. Akagi and her new lover; their expertise is not easily faked even with the originals under our… custody.”

Camael ventured a reply, “Dr. Akagi will find them out eventually. The clones are merely human, after all.”

A seamless reply followed, “Then rescue them when she does. In the meantime, Sahaquiel is approaching, and NERV-Japan is embarking on extensive preparations to kill it and gain NERV-Germany’s allegiance.

“However…” Kassa said as they arrived at where SEELE’s new trump card awaited them, “Let’s just say they are in for a rough surprise…”

Spoiler: The NHG Gebet

​

​

-------

Shinji heard Misato (whom he did not know had been replaced) start the briefing with one line that no longer surprised him.

“All right, folks, we’re going to space!”

The Major then continued, “The American President has decided to lend us Cape Canaveral - On the condition none of us turn it into collateral damage - And free transport for one Evangelion and one LUXMAN unit. So, we’re drawing lots for which pair of each goes to the final frontier!”

What was the purpose of this expedition? To pre-empt the Angel named Sahaquiel before it began blasting parts of itself at various targets on Earth, and if successful, gain NERV-Germany’s allegiance.

Either way, the lots were drawn, and to his surprise…

“Wait!” he couldn’t help but blurt out once he had looked at the results twice, “Asuka and Matteo again? Didn’t they have the last kill and the one before that, too?”

Asuka retorted, “What, you jealous? At least Mr. ‘Adult Pilot’ knows his place!”

Shinji frowned at that, but couldn’t help but snap sarcastically, “I’ll get the Angel Leliel, then; Dr. Akagi can have Ireul like she did in the other universe.”

Asuka was dumbfounded, then exclaimed, “Wow! Getting a boyfriend must have stiffened your spine, Idiot Shinji. Either way, I’m saving NERV-Germany, so that’s that!”

The boy nodded; he couldn't fault what Asuka felt, even though he did not understand such feelings either. Then he said, "Good luck, then."

Asuka gave a short ‘hmph’, then added, "Thank you, Idiot Shinji. Now make sure you, your boyfriend, and that Ken asshole and his boyfriend keep this place safe, you hear he?! I don’t want to come back to nothing but cinders!"

“I’ll keep this place safe too,” Rei intruded, causing Asuka to give her a death glare, a scowl, but strangely, nothing more as…

“Nope, not letting you ruin my mood,” she muttered before the girl walked over to Matteo, who had been sitting in the back row with the Suburovs, and exclaimed, “Oi! Adult Pilot! Let’s prep for the trip east - We need to make sure this does not end up like last time with several ships’ worth of people dead!”

Matteo nodded as he got up and spoke, “Hopefully we only need one ship this time; after all, we‘re not transporting an Adam. Either way, we’re not having hundreds of men and women on our conscience in this second chance.”

“Yep,” Asuka said with relish, “And if those SEELE freaks try and stop us, we’ll blast them six hundred feet under the waves…”

Shinji then felt Kaworu touch his hand - A tender gesture he was still not used to - then the other boy whispered into his ear, “The Major sounds like she is trying too hard to be professional.”

He nodded at that, then remembered prudence as he whispered back, “Let’s wait for her to end the meeting first.”

Misato - The Major - had noticed them, but unlike how she usually acted, she was giving them a look of… Approval? Was she endorsing Kaworu’s public display of affection right now?

Or was something fishy?

------

Gendo and Yui Ikari were surprised to hear that their son (and prospective son-in-law) came to them directly about their suspicions of Misato’s behavior, and the former revealed that he had not lost his touch when he said, “We’ll ask Ritsuko and the MAGI to verify if something is strange with the Major and Mr. Kaji, preferably without alerting the two. As it is, what was the inciting incident for said suspicions?”

Shinji told him outright, “Misato left to meet Mr. Kaji two nights ago, letting us and the other kids play ‘That British Game’ in her apartment. But when she returned later in the evening, she looked surprised at how all of us were playing that game; she also treated Pen-Pen more coldly than usual, like a regular dog or cat.”

Kaworu nodded and confirmed, “Of course, she covered up those responses a split-second later, so not even I am certain she’s been compromised or even replaced outright. That said, she and Mr. Ryoji have acted more professionally to each other than usual, with none of the banter and haphazardly hidden displays of affection.”

Gendo had arrived at the most likely conclusion earlier, but he could always use confirmation. Looking at Shinji, he said, “If Misato and Kaji have been replaced by impostors; potentially clones, will you agree to their deaths?”

The response from his son was obvious, carrying naivete that he would have objected to mere months ago, “Of course not! How can you even suggest that -”

He interrupted, “Then work with Ken to find a nonlethal solution, but fair warning: If none can be found, then they will die. Have I made myself clear?”

Shinji’s determination was mildly impressive as his son answered, “Don’t worry, we’ll find one.”

And then the boy stormed off pre-emptively, leaving Kaworu behind.

Gendo looked at his wife, his precious, now-returned to him Yui, before asking her, “Yui, what are your thoughts?”

“Shinji has grown, partly thanks to our grandson,” she said to him, before continuing, “It is best if we do not let SEELE learn that we’ve caught on to their game. However, this comes at a bad time for us; Sahaquiel is about to attack various NERV targets, Asuka and her accompanying LUXMAN Pilot, Matteo, are crossing the Pacific again, and JHCI has been nationalized, forcing Mr. Tokita to allow practical mech technology and Anti-L Systems to profiliate.”

Yui then followed up with, “Speaking of which, he and Fuyutsuki are having tea right now; I wonder what they might be talking about?”

------

Shiro Tokita told Vice-Commander Fuyutsuki outright as they sipped tea in the English manner around a small table, “We need more assets in space more than we need NERV-Germany’s fair-weather allegiance; I’ve had enough of false friends. That, and allowing SEELE to potentially bombard us from orbit is a risk no one should take.”

He was met with a nod of agreement, and a response of, “You’ve grown bold, yet wise. More intelligent, still keeping that arrogant pride that had screwed your Alternate Universe counterpart over. But will Commander Ikari approve of you committing Counter-Conspiracy assets to Central Asia, of all places?”

Shiro gave a small scowl at that, but had a ready retort, “That’s why I’m seeking a second opinion. I usually talk to Mr. Kaji about this, but considering his erratic behavior in the past couple of days…”

The response from the Vice-Commander was, “I understand; others are more fit to feed the mole than you are. Now, to turn to other, just as serious matters.”

He found himself facing Fuyutsuki’s next question, “Do you still regard yourself as Ken Illustrious Ikari’s equal partner?”

Shiro found himself confidently blurting out, “I do. Not even he can be everywhere at once nor can he know everything there is to know. And he and the other kids do not need to know about this operation, which will not just grant us another path to space, but make sure that the Post-SEELE World Order is… Looser, more lenient, than the UN’s current stranglehold.”

Fuyutsuki ventured, “The boy will probably approve; he’s a hawk barely hatched out of his egg, but still a hawk.”

Shiro looked back and said, “Which is why we don’t need him knowing till well after the fact; we do not need him or Rafail trying to ‘help’, or give their unsolicited approval…”

He saw Fuyutsuki smile and say, “You are a reluctant arms dealer, I take it. One who only conceived the original Jet Alone to undermine NERV’s monopoly on the strongest weapons of war and the resources the UN was using to fund it and not starving children.”

Shiro nodded, and shrugged, “My commitments are the same as they always were, just more flexible. Which is why, much as I’ve grown fond of Ken, his approval until it’s guaranteed that the operation has had the minimum of casualties, won or lost, can only be shameful.”

------

Some days later, Asuka and Matteo were in space as Sahaquiel appeared, blowing past a dozen N2 mines detonated in its path.

“All right, wannabe, time to use your much-vaunted Anti-L System!” she called out to her partner. Yet surprisingly, she didn’t feel spite or malice as she said that, even as Matteo’s LUXMAN, which was tethered to her Unit-02 via the latter’s umbilical cord, ‘tugged’ them both with its jet thrusters, activating the Anti-L Barrier as Sahaquiel pushed forward towards the new threat in its sights.

Unlike before, the Anti-L Barrier was clear-colored, not crimson as it was during the LUXMAN’s initial deployment, and it was as powerful as the system that had cleared Paris of ‘core-ification’ in the Rebuild Timeline.

Sahaquiel bounced backward, the lack of friction in space causing it to reel away further than it would have in a non-vacuum environment.

Asuka then flared her own AT-Field, drew an axe with Angel-Sealing Hex Glyphs on it (handed over by Matteo’s LUXMAN), then with a roar, charged towards Sahaquiel, planning to rip through its protective barriers to tear through its flesh -

Only for the Angel to fling its extremities first, hurling two of the stem-like growths at the furthest ends of its elongated body at her and Matteo; the latter’s Anti-L System was able to push away the Angelic Flesh itself, but the kinetic force almost tore the LUXMAN away from Eva Unit-02’s umbilical cord and pushed it back far enough that there was one second in which Asuka was unprotected by the Anti-L Barrier projected by her teammate.

Then, using an attack that it didn’t have in the ‘Original Timeline’, Sahaquiel radiated a laser beam from its main eye and fired it directly at Unit-02.

Asuka screamed.

------

“Was it wise,” Kassa asked Camael as they watched SEELE’s loyalists activate the NHG Gebet, “To give Sahaquiel that upgrade? He is our enemy…”

“To the strongest,” Camael said curtly as she stood beside him. “Didn’t we agree that I serve the strongest side? But I said nothing about how I would serve you… Not that you are the type to object to actual ingenuity, right? Besides, that girl will live; she will probably prevail and learn a little real strength.”

Kassa scoffed, “If she does, hopefully, it’s not enough to get you to defect. I value your company, after all.”

It was Camael’s turn to scoff, “Don’t show weakness on me…”

But he saw the faintest smile on her face anyway.

 

End of the Fic

Author’s Note: Well, it’s been a long journey, and I had a lot of good times writing out this fic. But alas, all good things have to come to an end, and this fic likewise; I’ve run out of inspiration on how to continue plus the existing story has run into a rut. However, so as not to leave you guys hanging, I’ll give you my plans for how this little yarn was going to go.

Sahaquiel Fight: Resolution

Shiro Tokita’s authorized operation to take the Baikonur Cosmodrome from SEELE would have succeeded, and a rocket would be sent to orbit bearing a ‘care package’ for Asuka, namely a full-sized replica of the Spear of Cassius, which she would use to turn the tables on Sahaquiel, as well as SEELE’s space force when they try to interfere. However, the latter will still be mostly intact, as Asuka, for once, decides that discretion is the better part of valor and decides to return to Earth’s surface with a successful job.

Clones and Ireul Arc: Resolution

The Misato and Kaji clones will be used to feed misinformation to SEELE about how they expect Ireul to appear as in canon with minimal upgrades from Camael, when in fact, they know that Ireul will be used to create a zombie plague that would turn Tokyo-3's population to the living dead. They manage to arrest the Clones a few hours before Ireul strikes, but then the JSSDF throws a curveball by invading NERV HQ right then, allowing Ireul to infect the JSSDF force.

Realizing that this was a threat to both of them, SEELE proposes a truce with NERV as their current chief agent, Kassa, actually cares for his people and wants the Clones returned to him safely (He would also give back Misato and Kaji). Ireul is then defeated and destroyed.

Endgame: The Battle

Kassa finds an Extracanonical Artifact known as 'The Backdoor' that allows him and Camael to access the Golgotha Object from the Final Rebuild Movie; Ken explains the purpose of said Object as:

"The Anti-Universe that the Golgotha Object is placed in is equivalent to The Warp from Warhammer Fantasy and 40,000, and the Golgotha Object itself is equivalent to some sort of 'Cosmic IUD' that prevents a Chaos God from forming. However, this function can be reversed to jump-start the creation of one such entity and cause a 'Multiversal Impact' that can merge the souls of all versions of Humanity in the Multiverse into one entity - Greater Instrumentality."

The Backdoor will take 48 Hours to activate, so NERV has enough time to attack SEELE's moonbase; they fail, but it turns out that Rebuild!Shinji is waiting on the other side not just with his own Backdoor, but an army of various other Shinjis from the Multiverse. Turns out he had been preparing for this just after he allowed Ken to go off to the Alternate Universe.

Endgame: Shiro Tokita's Resolution

As the battle rages in the Anti-Universe itself, Shiro Tokita realizes that something is terribly wrong, drawing his conclusions from Ken's Warhammer 40k analogy. If the Golgotha Object is an equivalent of an IUD that prevents a Chaos God-equivalent from being born and allows the process of creating such to be controlled… What will happen if it is destroyed?

So Shiro, taking a Custom LUXMAN model as there is literally no one else, flies through the portal made by The Backdoor into the Anti-Universe, where he confronts the aspects of his own personality.

The part of him puffed up with pride at being the object of Ken's gifts.

The part of him secretly jealous of everyone else, including his own subordinates, Matteo and Alonso.

The part of him that had been a petty sexist pig.

But also the part of him genuinely concerned about starving civilians elsewhere.

But also the part of him who genuinely believed in hope for the future.

Looking himself in the eye, he says, "Everyone can change, Let me through."

And he finds himself confronting Kassa, even as the latter resolves to destroy the Golgotha Object in the face of Camael betraying him to side with 'The Strongest', aka Rebuild Shinji and the Army of Shinjis.

"Kassa Makonnen, of Ethiopia, have you forgotten why you wanted Instrumentality?" Shiro Tokita will ask.

Kassa's Family was still alive but did not understand him. They valued their native cultures above some concept of 'Humanity', despite their cultures being 'repressive' and 'irrational'. Instrumentality was so that they could understand that, and they could understand him, so they could see each other's 'common humanity' and 'help each other'.

Shiro responds with, "There's no 'each other' in Instrumentality. Just one is made from everyone. And besides, have you ever tried to understand your family? Have you ever understood Camael? Have you ever accepted a decision someone else made when it went against your interests?

"Sometimes, mundane understanding is worth more because it is earned; I learned that from everyone around me. But if sweet words won't convince you, this will: You're being manipulated into destroying the Object."

Camael then interrupts by saying, "He is right."

Then the real final enemy, He Who Is Not, a potential being formed in a possible timeline where the Golgotha Object is destroyed, attacks. HWIN attacks Shiro Tokita directly, but is stopped and sent back to his timeline by Kassa, Camael, and Rebuild Shinji working together.

The Final Battle ends.

Epilogue

The world rebuilds. Gendo and the returned Yui hold Ken to his promise. Ken and Raphael in turn prepare to depart for another Universe to pursue said promise. Shiro Tokita gets JHCI back and makes it a cornerstone of a restored International Order.

But all of them remember this: HWIN can still exist. All it will take is for a lapse in vigilance, and he can still form, then undo Reality as we know it…