“How are we looking?”
“Power levels approaching nominal levels, Captain Katsuragi,” the orange suited technician responded from behind his laptop screen, almost shouting as the electric hum surrounding them steadily increased in pitch, “Another 60 seconds and we’ll be ready for extraction.”
Misato nodded and pulled out her phone. She pressed send and put the phone to her ear.
“Ritusko. We’re almost ready up here. How are things on your end?”
A short pause, the sound of keys clicking the only reply.
“We’re good down here. Everything looks normal, no spikes in activity from the occupant or the container. There’s barely any activity at all. It’s as though there’s nothing in the core.”
A pause.
“But we know that’s not right.”
Misato sighed.
“Okay, Ritsuko. We’re about to start the extraction process. Stay on the line until it’s over in case anything goes wrong.”
“Roger that.”
Misato lowered her phone and looked around at the gathered crowd of technicians, almost a dozen people all wearing identical orange jumpsuits all tending to some task or another. The click clack of keyboards was almost drowned out by the sound of the various machines surrounding the platform where the extraction would occur. Two techs were checking readings on a screen and comparing them to the displays on the laptops. Whatever the machine did, it was important. Misato didn’t pretend to know what purpose every piece of equipment served or how they worked. Ritsuko knew, and that was good enough for Misato.
Her eyes scanned the room and settled on the one person other than herself not wearing a jumpsuit. Misato watched as the girl hung her legs off a railing, the red of the plugsuit catching in the light. It was the only splash of color in a small sea of orange. The girl looked over and caught Misato’s eye. She nodded slightly at the older woman and turned her gaze back to the platform, seeming to stare through the dull gray metal more than look at it. Misato couldn’t see her face well enough in the dim light to really see her expression, but she was fairly sure she saw a flash of something cross the redhead’s features.
Something like worry.
“Captain, we’re ready. On your order.”
Misato shook her head and pressed her phone to her ear again.
“Ritsuko, you ready to go?”
“Yep. Give the word and we’re on it.”
Misato lowered her phone and looked at her lead technician.
“Do it.”
The woman returned the nod and keyed in a command on her laptop. She looked back. Misato nodded. The woman hit “Enter” on her keyboard and stepped back from the platform, a small timer counting down from 20 seconds on the laptop screen.
Misato had experienced a lot in the last 14 years, battles and fights too numerous to list. Scavenging materials in the aftermath of Unit 01’s near-ascension to try and establish some sort of infrastructure. Stealing the Wunder had been the hardest thing she had ever done, at least until now. Whatever they hoped to get out of the core in front of them, no scenario she could imagine ended happily. At least not for him. Even if they dragged him out alive, the only thing he had to look forward to was quarantine before long term confinement.
Still, better out here than in there.
Out here, they could keep him under constant surveillance, monitor his movements and keep him safe. In there, well…. Everyone had seen what that could lead to.
You can do it, Shinji!!
Misato blinked and rubbed at her eyes, the memory coming unbidden. She clamped down on the railing in front of her, knuckles slowly turning white. She stared at the monitor below her as it counted down from 5
4
3
2
1
…….
For a moment, nothing happened.
And then, everything happened.
It was far less impressive or showy than she had expected and, in some small way she hated to acknowledge, slightly hoped it would be. The machinery around her was some of the most advanced pieces of technology humanity had ever conjured up. They could take a human soul and yank it out of a core like it was nothing, but their designers obviously preferred a subdued approach. As it was, all that happened was a dimming of the lights accompanied by the computers and various onyx black towers coming to life as fans spun up, drawing cool air over sensitive components as they worked out the near incomprehensible equations needed for the operation.
The core in front of them began to glow, a dim luminescence steadily growing in the center and spreading outward, the purple and green armor plates surrounding the red orb bathed in the strange light.
The machines ran at full tilt for what seemed like hours but couldn’t have been more than a few minutes. Suddenly the light in the core vanished, and a small slit appeared on the surface.
Misato smirked.
The smirk faded just as quickly as it had formed. The floor began to shake under them, only a slight vibration to start with, but quickly rising to a crescendo that threatened to tear the ship apart. A flash of red caught Misato’s eye and she looked down at the monitor beneath her as it flashed a warning. A technician was frantically typing, strange commands stringing together in a vain attempt to stop whatever was happening.
“Don’t do this. Not now…” Misato whispered, her voice cracking more than she would like.
“Misato! We have a problem!” Ritsuko’s panicked voice came over Misato’s phone, “Brainwaves are spiking. Something is awake in there and it’s pissed. We have to stop!”
Misato swore and started shouting orders.
“What the hell is going on??” Misato bellowed, several technicians looking at her and shaking their heads.
“No idea, Captain! There was no activity in the core and then there was. And a lot of it!”
The girl across the room jumped up and grabbed the railing, shouting something that Misato couldn’t make out over the chaos. The older woman ran around to a set of stairs descending to the platform below. The armor plates around the core began to creak and groan as whatever force inside began to press outwards. She made it to a small control panel and pressed her hand on the biometric scanner. It beeped in recognition and a small panel slid out of the way.
A red button rose from within the case and Misato slammed her hand down on it and waited.
Nothing happened. She slammed her hand down again and again, swearing loudly. She pressed her phone back to her ear.
“Ritsuko! The emergency disconnect isn’t working! We can’t abort!”
“Shit! I’ll see what I can do down here. Worst case scenario, we can start ripping out power cables and hope for the best.”
That wasn’t what Misato wanted to hear, but she was used to that. She moved from behind the panel and walked up to the core. The armor surrounding it was beginning to bend and tear, the mounts beginning to deform as the core expanded.
“Misato! Get away from there!!” Asuka screamed. Misato turned to look at her and froze. The expression on the younger girl’s face was tough to parse. It was a combination of shock, confusion and something else Misato couldn’t place. She started to yell something back when everything and everyone around her suddenly went silent.
Do it for yourself!
Misato turned around and came face to face with Shinji Ikari. Her mouth worked open and closed for a few moments, but words refused to come. He was wearing his school uniform, the white shirt stained with whatever fluid was contained in the core. He looked at Misato with the purest expression of shock she had ever seen on a person’s face. She barely noticed as four armed guards surrounded the boy, rifles at the ready.
Shinji reached out towards Misato and one of the guards placed himself between her and the boy. He looked confused, and tired. He blinked.
Do it because this is what you want!
Misato fought every urge to reach out to the boy. She missed him, but after what he’d done, an emotional reunion wasn’t in the cards. Not anymore.
But still, the urge was still there. She could deal with that later.
Shinji staggered to the side, whatever strength he held onto rapidly fading. He fell to the floor in a heap and looked up at Misato. He passed out then, but not before getting out three words. Misato’s blood ran cold, her stomach twisting itself into knots. They weren’t the words she was expecting from the boy, she honestly wasn’t expecting any words at all, but there they were.
Misato, I’m sorry.
She bit down on a sob, turning from the boy and calling for a stretcher and a medic.
As Shinji slowly faded into unconsciousness, he thought he saw the feet of a red plugsuit step up beside Misato. He reached his hand out, or at least tried, before he was grabbed and flipped upside down onto a stretcher. He saw a flash of red hair, and then….
Nothing.
() () () ()
Shinji Ikari, former pilot of Evangelion Unit 01, former member of NERV, former roommate and friend of Misato Katsuragi, and former classmate of Asuka Langley Shikinami, opened his eyes and screamed.
It was a short burst of sound, the boy’s vocal cords unable to sustain more than a second or two. He sat up in the small bed, his chest rising and falling rapidly, his breathing forced and panicky. He held his hands up to his face and stared at them, turning them this way and that. He patted himself on the chest before making his way up to his head and face, fingers probing every nook, every dimple.
“This… This isn’t real,” he whispered, his voice echoing in the chamber more than he would have liked.
“Oh, it’s real alright. You idiot.”
Shinji’s head whipped around, his eyes wide, his breath catching as recognition flooded his mind. The redheaded pilot was standing on the other side of the room, a low wall separating him from her. She wore her plugsuit underneath a black hoodie, her hands tucked in the pocket on her stomach.
“Asuka!” he yelled, throwing his legs off the bed and standing uneasily, “Oh, thank God. I…”
“He has nothing to do with this,” came another voice, cutting him off. One that he also recognized instantly. Misato stepped into the room, slightly behind and to the side of Asuka. She woman leaned against the wall, her arms folded, her head angled towards the floor. She wore a pair of dark goggles and even though Shinji couldn’t see her eyes, he could feel the weight of her glare.
“Misato! I thought I’d never see you again!” Shinji exclaimed, moving towards them, “Asuka! You look the same as….”
He trailed off as he neared the middle of the room. He squinted and realized that the low wall in the middle of the room was supporting a solid piece of glass, stretching from wall to wall and up, all the way to the ceiling. He walked up and placed his hand on it, and for the first time in 14 years, he saw his reflection.
He looked the same as he remembered looking the last time he was in an Eva. He hadn’t aged at all. He glanced at Asuka. Some part of his exhausted brain had already realized the same was true for her. As to how, he had no idea. He could deal with that later. He stared at the redhead for a moment before poking at his face again, as if to convince himself he was real. His eyes slid down and he froze.
There was a solid black collar wrapped around his neck, the rectangular section directly over his Adam’s apple coated a deep crimson. He stared at it for a moment, his hands slowly making their way towards his throat.
“Wha….” he started.
“Don’t even think about touching that, Shinji,” came yet another voice. He looked up as a blond woman entered the room. She carried a folder under her arm that she laid on a small table and turned to look at the boy, “It’s there for a reason.”
His fingers stopped just shy of the collar and he lowered his arms.
“What is this thing?” he asked shakily, his eyes flitting from his reflection the blond woman he now recognized as Ritsuko Akagi. Her hair was shorter than he remembered her wearing it, her face thinner, harder somehow, “I wasn’t wearing this when I got in Unit 01.”
Asuka’s brow rose ever so slightly.
Misato pulled something out of her jacket and held it out in front of her. It was a green controller of some kind, shaped similarly to the grip of a revolver. A small red wheel was built into the top and he watched her run her thumb over it, a small holographic display springing to life under her hand. She thumbed through the options on the device until she found what she wanted. She pressed in on the scroll wheel and the orange text flashed red. Shinji felt the collar vibrate slightly, accompanied by a small beep. He reached up to pull at it.
“Don’t touch that, Shinji,” Misato barked, the weird device still held in front of her, “That thing is for our protection.”
“Protection? From what?” Shinji stammered.
“From you, you idiot,” Asuka replied, venom dripping from her words.
“From me? What…”
Ritsuko cleared her throat.
“It’s called a DSS Choker. It’s sole purpose is to prevent you from ever getting in an Evangelion again.”
She looked at Shinji.
“If you ever step foot inside an Eva, or attempt to remove the collar, it will be detonated. You will be stopped at the cost of your own life.”
Shinji started to reach towards the collar, thought better of it, and lowered his hand.
“You… You would kill me?” he whispered, his voice shaking.
“If you ever attempt to get in an Eva, yes” Misato answered, far colder than he could ever remember her being.
Shinji blinked. He lowered his head. Memories of his last time in an Eva rushed, unbidden, to the front of his mind.
“Is this because of 14 years ago?” he whispered.
Ritsuko’s eyes widened, her mouth dropping open. She turned to Misato and Asuka, similar expressions on their faces.
“Shinji. How do you…?” Ritsuko asked, “You’ve been trapped inside Unit 01. How cou…”
“Did you think I was asleep?”
Ritsuko stopped, her mouth clicking shut. He glanced up at them.
“Because I wasn’t.”
The silence in the room stretched out for several moments, the only sound the air circulating through the vents overhead. Misato walked over to Ritsuko, Asuka joining them. They huddled together, the red haired pilot occasionally glancing up at the boy behind the glass.
Ritsuko flipped open the folder she had brought in with her and began flipping through pages.
“That’s not possible,” she said to no one in particular, “Not once did we ever get a reading of any kind that would indicate you were alive, much less awake.”
She looked at the boy.
“We didn’t even know if we could get you out of the core, and you’re saying you’ve been awake this entire time?”
Shinji lowered his head and leaned it against the glass. It was cool on his skin, but he thought he would probably have appreciated it even if it was red hot. Because that meant he was free, and that meant he could feel again. He took a deep breath, thankful for the sensation of his lungs filling and deflating.
“I couldn’t move, and I couldn’t feel anything, not physically at least,” he started, still staring at the floor, “I couldn’t talk, I couldn’t scream. I couldn’t even breathe, but, then again, I guess I didn’t really need to.”
He raised a hand to the glass, letting it rest slightly above his head, his palm pressed flat against the surface.
“But I could hear.”
He looked up. The three women stared at him.
“And I could see.”
He stepped back from the mirror, and something changed. He drew himself up as he made deliberate, prolonged eye contact with his three visitors, his eyes somehow hardening, his gaze suddenly gaining weight.
“I could see everything. I watched the world crumble after what I did that day. I watched the governments of the world scramble to make sure I was swiftly removed from the planet. I remember being launched into space, being entombed in whatever that thing was you pulled Unit 01 out of.”
Misato glanced at her comrades.
“Shinji, that’s not possible,” she said after a moment, “For all intents and purposes, you were dead. We had a small ceremony for you. Ritsuko said there was almost no chance you survived whatever it was you did to make Unit 01 awaken. You…”
“And yet here I am,” Shinji interrupted, louder than before, holding his arms out to his sides, “In the flesh. I don’t know what else I can tell you, Misato, Ritsuko. Unit 01 kept me alive somehow, if what I was could really be considered ‘alive.’
“That’s enough.”
Asuka stepped from behind Misato and started towards Shinji. The older woman grabbed at the girl’s arm. The redhead shook herself free without slowing down. She stomped across the room, placed her foot on the small ledge underneath the window, reared back her fist, and punched the glass. Shinji saw it ripple outward from the impact, cracks spreading from where her fist now pressed against the pane. His eyes widened.
“You’re lying” she whispered, her voice dripping with venom, “You don’t know what you’re talking about, you idiot. If you were awake this entire time we would have known. You can’t just expect us to believe that crap. Maybe back then, but not now.”
She met Shinji’s eyes.
“Not after what you’ve done.”
She stepped down from the table and put her hands back in the pocket of her hoodie. She turned to her companions.
“You two don’t actually believe him, do you? If this is even really the same stupid Shinji from years ago, he should have no idea how long he’s been out. You said so yourself, Dr. Akagi.”
She turned back to the boy.
“I think yo…” she started and then trailed off. Shinji was standing at the glass, running his hands over the cracks left by Asuka’s strike. He looked from the glass to his hands and back.
“How did you do that to the glass, Asuka?” he asked.
His eyes widened at some revelation, his entire body seeming to stiffen for a moment. He looked at Asuka.
“Can I do that?”
Before anyone could answer, or even begin to think about answering, Shinji balled his right hand into a fist, reared back and punched the glass. He struck it almost exactly where Asuka’s own fist had landed.
The glass didn’t crack. Instead, a chunk of the window a half meter wide and almost as tall dislodged itself and flew outwards. It landed a meter or so from the wall and broke in two on impact.
Three sets of eyes locked onto Shinji. Mouths moved up and down silently for a few moments, brains struggling to comprehend what they had just seen.
Shinji stared at his fist, his jaw hanging open. He turned the hand over and inspected the knuckles. They were a little sore, but there were no marks on his skin, and no blood. He looked at the hole in the window, barely noticing Misato screaming at him.
The hole was big enough to stick his head through.
So, he did.
He braced himself with his hands on either side of the hole, his shoulders slightly too wide to fit through. He lifted his head up and looked at the three women, his face as much a mask of shock as theirs.
“I… I didn’t think that would work….” he stammered, looking around before settling his gaze on Asuka, “What the hell happened to us?”
The redhead wanted to reply. She wanted to yell and scream at Shinji for being an idiot. But, for what she realized was the first time in possibly her entire life, she was speechless.

GunmetalSnail429 wrote:So I had this idea the other day at work and it kept bugging me until I was able to get home and start typing it out. The basic idea is, what if the Shinji that WILLE pulled out of Unit 01 had been conscious for the entire 14 years since Near-Third Impact? What if, thanks to Unit 01 performing some weird techno-magic, he was able to see and hear digital communications from across the world, with particular interest paid to those of his former colleagues, Misato, Asuka, Ritsuko, etc? What if the The Curse of The Eva's affected him more severely since he was trapped inside onefor a decade and a half?

Kendrix wrote:Seems interesting, though what would really interest me about this scenario is what exactly Shinji would have heard over the years...

Line wrote:I didn't read the wall of text, but just reading the premise (having big knowledge of universe, being under Eva curse greatly...) make my imagination give a thumb up of approval

Misato Katsuragi, former 3rd in command of NERV, former operations and combat director for three Evangelions and their pilots, former roommate and guardian of Shinji Ikari, and current Captain of the WILLE ship the AAA Wunder, stared at the phone in her hand, and, by extension, the message currently sitting unsent on the screen. Her finger hovered over the send button for a moment before pressing down. The message left her phone and started it’s near instantaneous journey across the world to whatever encrypted email server he was using.
She didn’t know why she bothered. He never responded. She wasn’t even entirely sure he was still alive, but something about the regular communications, however one-sided, helped keep her sane. She almost considered it a journal of sorts, each message a snapshot of whatever was on her mind at the time she sent it. She watched as a message popped up in her email client informing her that the message had been delivered. She sighed and slipped the phone into her jacket pocket. She pulled on a pair of dark, oversized goggles, put them on, and stepped out of the small alcove and into the “operation room” as some of her subordinates had taken to calling it in the last few days.
“How are we looking?”
“Power levels approaching nominal levels, Captain Katsuragi,” the orange suited technician responded from behind his laptop screen, almost shouting as the electric hum surrounding them steadily increased in pitch, “Another 60 seconds and we’ll be ready for extraction.”
Misato nodded and pulled out her phone. She pressed send and put the phone to her ear.
“Ritusko. We’re almost ready up here. How are things on your end?”
A short pause, the sound of keys clicking the only reply.
“We’re good down here. Everything looks normal, no spikes in activity from the occupant or the container. There’s barely any activity at all. It’s as though there’s nothing in the core.”
A pause.
“But we know that’s not right.”
Misato sighed.
“Okay, Ritsuko. We’re about to start the extraction process. Stay on the line until it’s over in case anything goes wrong.”
“Roger that.”
Misato lowered her phone and looked around at the gathered crowd of technicians, almost a dozen people all wearing identical orange jumpsuits all tending to some task or another. The click clack of keyboards was almost drowned out by the sound of the various machines surrounding the platform where the extraction would occur. Two techs were checking readings on a screen and comparing them to the displays on the laptops. Whatever the machine did, it was important. Misato didn’t pretend to know what purpose every piece of equipment served or how they worked. Ritsuko knew, and that was good enough for Misato.
Her eyes scanned the room and settled on the one person other than herself not wearing a jumpsuit. Misato watched as the girl hung her legs off a railing, the red of the plugsuit catching in the light. It was the only splash of color in a small sea of orange. The girl looked over and caught Misato’s eye. She nodded slightly at the older woman and turned her gaze back to the platform, seeming to stare through the dull gray metal more than look at it. Misato couldn’t see her face well enough in the dim light to really see her expression, but she was fairly sure she saw a flash of something cross the redhead’s features.
Something like worry.
“Captain, we’re ready. On your order.”
Misato shook her head and pressed her phone to her ear again.
“Ritsuko, you ready to go?”
“Yep. Give the word and we’re on it.”
Misato lowered her phone and looked at her lead technician.
“Do it.”
The woman returned the nod and keyed in a command on her laptop. She looked back. Misato nodded. The woman hit “Enter” on her keyboard and stepped back from the platform, a small timer counting down from 20 seconds on the laptop screen.
Misato had experienced a lot in the last 14 years, battles and fights too numerous to list. Scavenging materials in the aftermath of Unit 01’s near-ascension to try and establish some sort of infrastructure. Stealing the Wunder had been the hardest thing she had ever done, at least until now. Whatever they hoped to get out of the core in front of them, no scenario she could imagine ended happily. At least not for him. Even if they dragged him out alive, the only thing he had to look forward to was quarantine before long term confinement.
Still, better out here than in there.
Out here, they could keep him under constant surveillance, monitor his movements and keep him safe. In there, well…. Everyone had seen what that could lead to.
You can do it, Shinji!!
Misato blinked and rubbed at her eyes, the memory coming unbidden. She clamped down on the railing in front of her, knuckles slowly turning white. She stared at the monitor below her as it counted down from 5
4
3
2
1
…….
For a moment, nothing happened.
And then, everything happened.
It was far less impressive or showy than she had expected and, in some small way she hated to acknowledge, slightly hoped it would be. The machinery around her was some of the most advanced pieces of technology humanity had ever conjured up. They could take a human soul and yank it out of a core like it was nothing, but their designers obviously preferred a subdued approach. As it was, all that happened was a dimming of the lights accompanied by the computers and various onyx black towers coming to life as fans spun up, drawing cool air over sensitive components as they worked out the near incomprehensible equations needed for the operation.
The core in front of them began to glow, a dim luminescence steadily growing in the center and spreading outward, the purple and green armor plates surrounding the red orb bathed in the strange light.
The machines ran at full tilt for what seemed like hours but couldn’t have been more than a few minutes. Suddenly the light in the core vanished, and a small slit appeared on the surface.
Misato smirked.
The smirk faded just as quickly as it had formed. The floor began to shake under them, only a slight vibration to start with, but quickly rising to a crescendo that threatened to tear the ship apart. A flash of red caught Misato’s eye and she looked down at the monitor beneath her as it flashed a warning. A technician was frantically typing, strange commands stringing together in a vain attempt to stop whatever was happening.
“Don’t do this. Not now…” Misato whispered, her voice cracking more than she would like.
“Misato! We have a problem!” Ritsuko’s panicked voice came over Misato’s phone, “Brainwaves are spiking. Something is awake in there and it’s pissed. We have to stop!”
Misato swore and started shouting orders.
“What the hell is going on??” Misato bellowed, several technicians looking at her and shaking their heads.
“No idea, Captain! There was no activity in the core and then there was. And a lot of it!”
The girl across the room jumped up and grabbed the railing, shouting something that Misato couldn’t make out over the chaos. The older woman ran around to a set of stairs descending to the platform below. The armor plates around the core began to creak and groan as whatever force inside began to press outwards. She made it to a small control panel and pressed her hand on the biometric scanner. It beeped in recognition and a small panel slid out of the way.
A red button rose from within the case and Misato slammed her hand down on it and waited.
Nothing happened. She slammed her hand down again and again, swearing loudly. She pressed her phone back to her ear.
“Ritsuko! The emergency disconnect isn’t working! We can’t abort!”
“Shit! I’ll see what I can do down here. Worst case scenario, we can start ripping out power cables and hope for the best.”
That wasn’t what Misato wanted to hear, but she was used to that. She moved from behind the panel and walked up to the core. The armor surrounding it was beginning to bend and tear, the mounts beginning to deform as the core expanded.
“Misato! Get away from there!!” Asuka screamed. Misato turned to look at her and froze. The expression on the younger girl’s face was tough to parse. It was a combination of shock, confusion and something else Misato couldn’t place. She started to yell something back when everything and everyone around her suddenly went silent.
Misato turned around and came face to face with Shinji Ikari. Her mouth worked open and closed for a few moments, but words refused to come. He was wearing his school uniform, the white shirt stained with whatever fluid was contained in the core. He looked at Misato with the purest expression of shock she had ever seen on a person’s face. She barely noticed as four armed guards surrounded the boy, rifles at the ready.
Shinji reached out towards Misato and one of the guards placed himself between her and the boy. He looked confused, and tired. He blinked.
Do this because it’s what you want!
Misato fought every urge to reach out to the boy. She missed him, but after what he’d done, an emotional reunion wasn’t in the cards. Not anymore.
But still, the urge was still there. She could deal with that later.
Shinji staggered to the side, whatever strength he held onto rapidly fading. He fell to the floor in a heap and looked up at Misato. He passed out then, but not before getting out three words. Misato’s blood ran cold, her stomach twisting itself into knots. They weren’t the words she was expecting from the boy, she honestly wasn’t expecting any words at all, but there they were.
Misato, I’m sorry.
She bit down on a sob, turning from the boy and calling for a stretcher and a medic.
As Shinji slowly faded into unconsciousness, he thought he saw the feet of a red plugsuit step up beside Misato. He reached his hand out, or at least tried, before he was grabbed and flipped upside down onto a stretcher. He saw a flash of red hair, and then….
Nothing.
() () () ()
Shinji Ikari, former pilot of Evangelion Unit 01, former member of NERV, former roommate and friend of Misato Katsuragi, and former classmate of Asuka Langley Shikinami, opened his eyes and screamed.
It was a short burst of sound, the boy’s vocal cords unable to sustain more than a second or two. He sat up in the small bed, his chest rising and falling rapidly, his breathing forced and panicky. He held his hands up to his face and stared at them, turning them this way and that. He patted himself on the chest before making his way up to his head and face, fingers probing every nook, every dimple.
“This… This isn’t real,” he whispered, his voice echoing in the chamber more than he would have liked.
“Oh, it’s real alright. You idiot.”
Shinji’s head whipped around, his eyes wide, his breath catching as recognition flooded his mind. The redheaded pilot was standing on the other side of the room, a low wall separating him from her. She wore her plugsuit underneath a black hoodie, her hands tucked in the pocket on her stomach.
“Asuka!” he yelled, throwing his legs off the bed and standing uneasily, “Oh, thank God. I…”
“He has nothing to do with this,” came another voice, cutting him off. One that he also recognized instantly. Misato stepped into the room, slightly behind and to the side of Asuka. She woman leaned against the wall, her arms folded, her head angled towards the floor. She wore a pair of dark goggles and even though Shinji couldn’t see her eyes, he could feel the weight of her glare.
“Misato! I thought I’d never see you again!” Shinji exclaimed, moving towards them, “Asuka! You look the same as….”
He trailed off as he neared the middle of the room. He squinted and realized that the low wall in the middle of the room was supporting a solid piece of glass, stretching from wall to wall and up, all the way to the ceiling. He walked up and placed his hand on it, and for the first time in 14 years, he saw his reflection.
He looked the same as he remembered looking the last time he was in an Eva. He hadn’t aged at all. He glanced at Asuka. Some part of his exhausted brain had already realized the same was true for her. As to how, he had no idea. He could deal with that later. He stared at the redhead for a moment before poking at his face again, as if to convince himself he was real. His eyes slid down and he froze.
There was a solid black collar wrapped around his neck, the rectangular section directly over his Adam’s apple coated a deep crimson. He stared at it for a moment, his hands slowly making their way towards his throat.
“Wha….” he started.
“Don’t even think about touching that, Shinji,” came yet another voice. He looked up as a blond woman entered the room. She carried a folder under her arm that she laid on a small table and turned to look at the boy, “It’s there for a reason.”
His fingers stopped just shy of the collar and he lowered his arms.
“What is this thing?” he asked shakily, his eyes flitting from his reflection the blond woman he now recognized as Ritsuko Akagi. Her hair was shorter than he remembered her wearing it, her face thinner, harder somehow, “I wasn’t wearing this when I got in Unit 01.”
Asuka’s brow rose ever so slightly.
Misato pulled something out of her jacket and held it out in front of her. It was a green controller of some kind, shaped similarly to the grip of a revolver. A small red wheel was built into the top and he watched her run her thumb over it, a small holographic display springing to life under her hand. She thumbed through the options on the device until she found what she wanted. She pressed in on the scroll wheel and the orange text flashed red. Shinji felt the collar vibrate slightly, accompanied by a small beep. He reached up to pull at it.
“Don’t touch that, Shinji,” Misato barked, the weird device still held in front of her, “That thing is for our protection.”
“Protection? From what?” Shinji stammered.
“From you, you idiot,” Asuka replied, venom dripping from her words.
“From me? What…”
Ritsuko cleared her throat.
“It’s called a DSS Choker. It’s sole purpose is to prevent you from ever getting in an Evangelion again.”
She looked at Shinji.
“If you ever step foot inside an Eva, or attempt to remove the collar, it will be detonated. You will be stopped at the cost of your own life.”
Shinji started to reach towards the collar, thought better of it, and lowered his hand.
“You… You would kill me?” he whispered, his voice shaking.
“If you ever attempt to get in an Eva, yes” Misato answered, far colder than he could ever remember her being.
Shinji blinked. He lowered his head. Memories of his last time in an Eva rushed, unbidden, to the front of his mind.
“Is this because of 14 years ago?” he whispered.
Ritsuko’s eyes widened, her mouth dropping open. She turned to Misato and Asuka, similar expressions on their faces.
“Shinji. How do you…?” Ritsuko asked, “You’ve been trapped inside Unit 01. How cou…”
“Did you think I was asleep?”
Ritsuko stopped, her mouth clicking shut. He glanced up at them.
“Because I wasn’t.”
The silence in the room stretched out for several moments, the only sound the air circulating through the vents overhead. Misato walked over to Ritsuko, Asuka joining them. They huddled together, the red-haired pilot occasionally glancing up at the boy behind the glass.
Ritsuko flipped open the folder she had brought in with her and began flipping through pages.
“That’s not possible,” she said to no one in particular, “Not once did we ever get a reading of any kind that would indicate you were alive, much less awake.”
She looked at the boy.
“We didn’t even know if we could get you out of the core, and you’re saying you’ve been awake this entire time?”
Shinji lowered his head and leaned it against the glass. It was cool on his skin, but he thought he would probably have appreciated it even if it was red hot. Because that meant he was free, and that meant he could feel again. He took a deep breath, thankful for the sensation of his lungs filling and deflating.
“I couldn’t move, and I couldn’t feel anything,” he started, still staring at the floor, “I couldn’t talk, I couldn’t scream. I couldn’t even breathe, but I guess I didn’t really need to.”
He raised a hand to the glass, letting it rest slightly above his head, his palm pressed flat against the surface.
“But I could hear.”
He looked up. The three women stared at him.
“And I could see.”
He stepped back from the mirror, and something changed. He drew himself up as he made deliberate, prolonged eye contact with his three visitors, his eyes somehow hardening, his gaze suddenly gaining weight.
“I could see everything. I watched the world crumble after what I did that day. I watched the governments of the world scramble to make sure I was swiftly removed from the planet. I remember being launched into space, being entombed in whatever that thing was you pulled Unit 01 out of.”
Misato glanced at her comrades.
“Shinji, that’s not possible,” she said after a moment, “For all intents and purposes, you were dead. We had a small ceremony for you. Ritsuko said there was almost no chance you survived whatever it was you did to make Unit 01 awaken. You…”
“And yet here I am,” Shinji interrupted, louder than before, holding his arms out to his sides, “In the flesh. I don’t know what else I can tell you, Misato, Ritsuko. Unit 01 kept me alive somehow and…”
“That’s enough.”
Asuka stepped from behind Misato and started towards Shinji. The older woman grabbed at the girl’s arm, but the redhead shook herself free without slowing down. She stomped across the room, placed her foot on the small ledge underneath the window, reared back, and punched the glass. Shinji saw it ripple outward from the impact, cracks spreading from where her fist now pressed against the pane. His eyes widened.
“You’re lying” she whispered, her voice dripping with venom, “You don’t know what you’re talking about, you idiot. If you were awake this entire time we would have known. You can’t just expect us to believe that crap. Maybe back then, but not now.”
She met Shinji’s eyes.
“Not after what you’ve done.”
She stepped down from the table and put her hands back in the pocket of her hoodie. She turned to her companions.
“You two don’t actually believe him, do you? If this is even really the same stupid Shinji from years ago, he should have no idea how long he’s been out. You said so yourself, Dr. Akagi.”
She turned back to the boy.
“I think yo…” she started and then trailed off. Shinji was standing at the glass, running his hands over the cracks left by Asuka’s strike. He looked from the glass to his hands and back.
“How did you do that to the glass, Asuka?” he asked.
His eyes widened at some revelation, his entire body seeming to stiffen for a moment. He looked at her.
“Can I do that?”
Before anyone could answer, or even begin to think about answering, Shinji balled his right hand into a fist, reared back and struck the glass. He struck it almost exactly where Asuka’s own fist had landed.
The glass didn’t crack.
Instead, a chunk of the window a half meter wide and almost as tall dislodged itself and flew outwards. It landed a meter or so from the wall and broke in two on impact.
Three sets of eyes locked onto Shinji. Ritsuko jumped up, her chair flying backwards to clatter against the wall. Mouths moved up and down silently for a few moments, three incredibly gifted minds struggling to comprehend what they had just seen.
Shinji stared at his fist, his jaw hanging open. He turned the hand over and inspected the knuckles. They were a little sore, but there were no marks on his skin, and no blood. He looked at the gap in the window, barely noticing Misato screaming at him. The hole was big enough to stick his head through.
So, he did.
He braced himself with his hands on either side of the hole, his shoulders slightly too wide to fit through. He lifted his head up and looked at the three women, his face as much a mask of shock as theirs.
“I… I didn’t think that would work….” he stammered, looking around before settling his gaze on Asuka, “What the hell happened to us?”
The redhead wanted to reply. She wanted to yell and scream at Shinji for being an idiot, for even worse things than that. But, for what she realized was the first time in possibly her entire life, she was speechless.
Luckily, Misato was not.
“Shinji! Step back from the glass right now or I will detonate the collar!”
She held the controller up in front of her and took a tentative step forward. Shinji turned to her and stared, his expression one of confusion and shock. He pulled his head through the glass and stepped back, his hands held up, palms forward.
“I didn’t mean to scare you, Misato,” he said unsteadily, “I… I didn’t know that would happen. I…”
“Can it, Shinji!” the Captain barked, “I don’t know how you did that, but if you attempt it again, I will push this button. I swear it!”
Shinji nodded, swallowing as he lowered his hands. He looked at his fist, confused. What did the Eva do to him? What did the Eva do to Asuka? What did the Eva do to the world?
Misato stood there, breathing hard for several moments. She shook her head and stared at the boy, her arm still outstretched, the detonator still clutched in her palm.
“Shinji, you are correct about the time. It has been 14 years since you initiated Near-Third Impact. In that time, things have changed dramatically. We were expecting to have to debrief you when, and if, we pulled you from Unit 01, but I’m putting those plans aside. Right now, you owe me, us, an explanation for what happened back then and…”
She glanced at the hole in the window.
“For whatever that just was. Let’s start with the simple part. Why did you attempt to initiate Third Impact?”
Shinji looked at her askance.
“Misato, you don’t think I did that on purpose, do you? I was just trying to save Rei from the Angel.”
Asuka scoffed.
“You think that’s a good excuse? You’re an even bigger idiot than I thought.”
Shinji glanced at Asuka.
“I know it’s not an excuse,” he looked from the redhead to Ritsuko and then Misato, “But it’s the only explanation I can give you.”
He looked at them pleadingly.
“Whatever I did to make Unit 01 awaken, I didn’t do it on purpose.”
“That notwithstanding, Shinji, you still caused the near-extinction of humanity,” Ritsuko replied, “And you have to take responsibility for that. Your confinement aboard this vessel and the collar around your neck are parts of your punishment.”
Shinji cradled his head in his hands, staring at the floor. Several minutes passed in silence, a small shiver passing through the boy every so often. Ritsuko cleared her throat.
“Ok, Shin…”
“I could hear you, you know.”
Ritsuko stopped, looking at the boy, her eyes narrow.
“What di..”
He looked up, his eyes red, tears threatening to run down his cheek.
“Misato. That day, when Unit 01 woke up.”
The Captain stared at him.
“What ar….”
“You can do it, Shinji!”
Misato froze, her eyes going wide.
“Do it because this is what you want!” he continued, “I heard all of it. I don’t know how, but I did.”
He saw Misato’s hand falter, twitching slightly as various emotions ran across her face. She narrowed her eyes.
“Don’t you dare try to lay this at my feet, Shinji,” she whispered viciously, “What happened with Unit 01 was your fault and your fault alone. If I had known….”
“I’m not trying to blame you for this, Misato,” he cut in, “I just wanted you to know that I heard you. That your voice helped me push forward, helped me to try and save Rei.”
He met her eyes, or at least what he assumed were her eyes, she still had those dark goggles on, and offered a small smile.
“I’ve wanted to thank you for that the entire time I’ve been in Unit 01, but I couldn’t. And now, it’s probably the last thing you want to hear from me.”
Misato stared at the boy, her arm still outstretched, the detonator aimed directly at Shinji. No one said anything for a while, the only sound the various creaks and moans of the ship as the superstructure twisted and flexed under natural forces. Shinji slumped in his chair and lowered his head, resting it in his hand.
“Shinji, you said you could see, and that you could hear while trapped in Unit 01,” Ritsuko started, slowly forming the words as her brow furrowed, “But you haven’t said just what it was that you could see and hear.”
He looked up at the doctor and tilted his head.
“Well, Dr. Akagi,” he began, “The short answer is…”
He leaned forward.
“Everything.”
The three women glanced at each other, Asuka’s eyes narrowing dangerously while Misato stood stock still. Her outstretched arm hadn’t even begun to shake or wobble from exertion.
Ritsuko pulled out a tablet from her coat and powered it on. She set it on the desk in front of her and unfolded a small, thin keyboard attached to the side.
“Alright, Shinji. Tell us, exactly what you saw. Leave nothing out, even if you think it’s unimportant. I… We need to know everything.”
Shinji closed his eyes, took in a sharp, deep breath, and started talking.
“It’s difficult to describe, Dr. Akagi. It started shortly after Unit 01’s was stopped by that spear. I… Came back into myself if that makes any sense. I realized I could see the recovery crews racing towards me, I could see the tanks and missile platforms setting up around me, I could hear the orders being barked between commanders and their subordinates.”
His brow wrinkled in thought.
“It felt strange, though. The angles were all wrong, the sound was staticky and clipped. I kept seeing Unit 01 from different angles, all at the same time, some of them shifting and changing constantly. It took me a while to realize what was happening, and when I did, I still didn’t understand how it was possible.”
He paused and shook his head. Ritsuko took the opportunity to speak up.
“What was it, Shinji? What was happening?”
The boy looked at her, his face scrunched, confused.
“I was seeing Unit 01 through onboard cameras on vehicles and personnel, all at once. I was hearing conversations over radios, and, pretty soon, cellphones too. I could hear, I could see every word spoken, every email and text message sent and received. Somehow the Eva had accessed every communications device in a certain radius and was feeding their contents to me.”
The other occupants of the room leaned back in unison, Misato and Asuka looking to the blonde doctor.
“Dr. Akagi, is that possible? Can the Eva do that?” the younger woman asked, barely above a whisper, “I’ve been piloting for almost 20 years and I’ve never been able to access more than the standard and private comms channels.”
Ritusko shook her head.
“It… Shouldn’t be possible, but who knows what power was really contained in Unit 01. If it had the power to rip open the sky and nearly bring about Third Impact, I don’t see why it couldn’t also break into communications networks.”
She narrowed her eyes at Shinji.
“Unless you’re just making this up as some sort of ploy to make us feel sorry for you…”
Shinji shook his head.
“No! I swear, I know what I saw. It was whatever communications were being sent near the Eva. It didn’t stop there, though. It continued the entire time Unit 01 was contained on Earth. I heard and saw the plans being made to send the Eva, and me, into space. While it was being transported to the launch platform, I could hear the technicians going over contingency plans for if Unit 01 activated during the launch.”
He shivered.
“There were almost two dozen N2 mines surrounding the Eva in the transport craft that carried it into orbit. Once I was in space, and they wrapped that coffin around the Eva, I hoped that would be the end of it. But…”
Shinji closed his eyes, his breath catching in his throat.
“But, what, Shinji?” Misato broke in, her voice strained, but level.
“But it just got worse. I started getting even more. More emails, more text messages. Even news broadcasts. I guess being free of most of the Earth’s atmosphere let the Eva really reach out. It might also be whatever communications systems they installed in the coffin. Maybe that allowed me to see more than what I could on the ground.”
Misato shook her head.
“Shinji, you’re asking us to take a lot on faith here. Faith that you do not have the right to, not now,” she spoke, “How can you possible prove any of this?”
Shinji looked at her and then Asuka before glancing at Ritsuko, his eyelids suddenly very heavy. He shook his head and continued.
“After a while, I realized that I had some control over what I saw and heard. Specifically, I could control whose data I was accessing once I singled them out.”
He looked down for a moment.
“That’s how I kept track of you three.”
Asuka’s eyes flew open, as wide as they could. Misato reached up and pulled the goggles from her face and let them hang at her side.
“You. What?”
Shinji nodded.
“I was able to single out your specific information out first, Misato. From there, every time you sent a message or called someone, I was able to make a connection with the recipient. That’s how I found you, Asuka, and you Dr. Akagi. The first time she sent you a message or called you, I, or I guess I should say the Eva, followed the message to your device, whatever it might have been. I kept track of you three and some others. I had to know you were alright.”
Misato stared at him, and for the first time since she walked into the room, he could see her eyes. They were the same dark brown eyes he knew, but something had changed. He had seen Misato mad; he had seen her happy. He had seen her a dozen different ways, but he had never seen her eyes like this. They still pierced right through him like they day he met her, but there was something. Something along the edges. Shinji squinted, and it hit him.
He had never seen her eyes so tired. He thought back to all the late nights they had spent after Angel attacks, sitting up, discussing what happened and how to do better, staying up until the small hours of the morning. He remembered how worn out she was after she wrangled together the infrastructure to beat the 6th Angel. Her eyes had been ringed with fatigue, but they were still full and bright. Now, though…
Now there was something missing.
“Shinji, how much could you see when you were accessing our phones?” Asuka asked, her voice tight.
Shinji scratched at the back of his head.
“All of it. Every single text, email and phone call,” he replied sheepishly, “The phone calls somehow came across as words in my vision, but I could still hear your voices.”
Asuka glared at him, her mouth twisted into a tight frown. Her lips were starting to tremble and, Shinji thought, she looked like she was about to start breathing smoke.
“You bastard. You go and nearly end the world, make us think you were dead, or at least irretrievably stuck in the Eva, get a free ticket to space and then you spend the next decade and a half spying on us??”
Asuka’s hands were at her side, her fists opening and closing to the beat of her breathing. He stared at Shinji, and he noticed her eyes looked a lot like Misato’s. There was too much in them for such a relatively short life. Too much anger. Too much disappointment.
Too much pain.
“I wasn’t spying on you, Asuka,” Shinji replied, his voice low, “I couldn’t control how much I saw, only who I saw it from. I… I needed to know you guys were alive. I... I fucked up so bad, and I couldn’t be there to apologize in person. I know you guys hate me because of what happened, and I can’t imagine what it’s been like down here for the last 14 years, but having to watch the people I care about suffer because of my actions, and be powerless to fix it…”
He choked back a sob.
“I would have gladly chosen death over that.”
He cradled his head in his hands again, his entire body starting to shake.
The three women looked to each other, as though any of them had an answer. Ritsuko’s eye’s widened and she snapped back to Shinji.
“Are you still able to see what you saw in the Eva?” she asked, urgently, “Can you still access communications systems and see the traffic passing through them?”
Misato and Asuka both glared at him, their eyes pressing down expectantly.
Shinji shook his head.
“No. As soon as you pulled me from the Eva, I lost it. Whatever was allowing me to do that was in Unit 01, not me.”
All three women seemed to shrink slightly, their shoulders relaxing, long held breaths released.
“I was able to see them right up until I was pulled out of the core. Right up until the last moment.”
He looked at Misato.
“The last thing I remember seeing was a message you sent shortly before extracting me. An email, I think.”
Misato’s eyes narrowed.
“Shinji, tha…”
“He reads your messages, by the way,” Shinji interrupted, not breaking eye contact with his former guardian, “Mr. Kaji. He’s read every message you’ve sent him in the last 6 years.”
He smiled, faintly.
“I know where he is, or at least where he was as of earlier today, if you’d like to know.”
Misato’s arm finally faltered, the limb slowly dropping to her side. Her lips pressed together into a frown, and her eyes started darting around, never focusing on one spot for more than a second, her mind racing, wandering, as it searched for a response. Asuka placed a hand on the older woman’s shoulder and shook her gently.
“Misa… Captain, are you alright?” she asked, glancing from her commanding officer to Shinji and back, her expression unreadable.
Misato shook her head and looked at the redhead. She nodded and the younger woman removed her hand. Misato fixed her gaze on Shinji, her eyes suddenly much redder than they were just a moment ago.
“That man left us, left me, just as we were starting to get things put back together. He said he had things to take care of, things that would help us. He said he would be back soon. He stopped replying to my messages less than 6 months after leaving. Why do you think I care where he is or what he’s doing?”
Shinji smiled, sadly.
“Because you keep sending him messages, Misato.”

Lennik wrote:I've read both walls of texts so far, and let me just say that not only do I love this premise, but it's also beautifully written, and everybody's reaction to Shinji breaking the glass made me crack up, not to mention the unspoken expression of "Holy shit I have superpowers" that I can picture so clearly on Shinji's face.