Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction ❯ Evangelion: Tribulations After ❯ Aftermath, part 1: Wake Up, Shinji ( Chapter 1 )

"Wake up, Shinji."

Shinji slowly released his grip on Asuka.

"Wake up, Shinji."

Shinji collapsed onto the ground next to Asuka.

"Wake up, Shinji."

"I feel sick."

"WAKE UP, SHINJI!"

And Shinji opened his eyes. Standing over him was a boy with white hair, he was just a little taller than Shinji, and had obviously been shaking Shinji in an attempt to rouse him.

"About time you woke up, you idiot."

Shinji could only stare wide-eyed at the person standing over him. His mind raced to try to find comprehension of the last few hours. He had just been through the philosophical discussion of the millennium, and was revealed that he and Asuka were the only two humans left on earth, and they would have to restart the human race, so who was this guy?

"Who am I? Name's not important."

"You read my thoughts..."

"No duh, moron. By the way, this is only a dream. This never happened."

Shinji awoke in his bed. His forehead was covered in light sweat as he realized he was in the bed of his home. He had no idea how he got there, or what the dream he had just had meant. Had it all been a dream? Had the Third Impact just been a dream? Wanting answers, Shinji got up out his bed and put on a pair of sweat pants. He opened the door to his room and walked out to see Misato having her morning beer. She turned and saw Shinji standing there.

"Hey, Shinji. You really need to set that alarm of yours! The first time I get a vacation day and in my sleeping, I never noticed you not going to school. Asuka's already left." She said, getting up.

"Misato?! But you're-"

Misato walked close to him and hugged him. In his ear, she whispered, "Meet me at the entranceway to NERV. Bring Rei if you can find her."

"But-"

"Do it." She commanded.

Shinji sat in his classroom like he had done it a hundred times. He ignored the repetitive babblings of his teacher, and looked all around him. Ayanami was at her usual seat, looking out a window, her eyes still wide with surprise, but Shinji didn't know what she was surprised about. Asuka looked about as tense as Shinji, as she fiddled around with her pencil and chewed on it as well. Everyone else just listened on to the droning of their teacher.

Shinji's mind was going a mile a minute, searching every possibility in his mind for how he had survived the Third Impact, or how everyone else had. Most of his own conversations in his mind had been about trying to accept life and to love himself, and to not hate himself. And yet, still, he could find no self-worth even after all that. The only thing that made his life worthwhile was piloting EVA, and they might not even exist here.

At lunch, when everyone was outside, Asuka and Shinji stood in front of Rei, but not looking at her. Rei just sat on the bench, not even bothering to read her book. Asuka and Shinji stared at each other, each thinking the same thing. Finally, they lept into one another's arms and hugged.

"I'm scared, Shinji… I've never been so scared…" she cried.

"I know, Asuka. I'm scared, too. Maybe we should talk about the third-"

"No. Misato said not to talk about it until we met her. I think she thinks we're being watched. But God, I have that feeling all the time, now.

"It's okay, Asuka. I won't let anything happen to you. Either of you." Shinji said, looking at Rei.

Rei said nothing. The tears coming down from her red eyes were enough.

"Something has definitely changed." Rei said as the three walked towards NERV HQ.

"I don't see how. We just survived the Third Impact, watched the world get devastated, saw the human race recreated in the blink of an eye, saw the world reborn, and no one but those of us at NERV seem to have any knowledge of it. Can't see how anything could've CHANGED." Asuka growls.

"I'm sorry, but I can feel it. In the air, the way people talk, the way they breathe, something about this is very wrong." Rei says, pulling back and still looking like she was going to fall down and cry.

Asuka noticed it, too. "I'm sorry, Rei. This has just been really stressful on me. I never truly got over my mother's death. She… She killed a doll and thought the doll was me. It's why I hate dolls so much… Why I hated you so much…"

"I am not a doll." Rei snarled.

"Sure could've fooled me. All you ever did was do exactly what you were told, regardless of your own personal feelings." Asuka says.

Rei stopped and turned Asuka around to face her. She held her by the shoulders and looked into her eyes. "Do you know what happened to cause me to merge with Lillith?" she asked, quietly.

Asuka shook her head, eager to learn of what she was talking about.

"Shinji's father wanted to merge with Lillith, evolve the human race to what he thought was the next stage, but I felt Shinji. I felt his pain caused by the beginning of the Third Impact. I was sick and tired of taking orders from a man who used me like a doll. And that is why you never, EVER call me a doll again." Ayanami whispered into her ear.

Asuka nodded her head in comprehension of what she was saying. Rei walked away from her. "Now, let's go meet Misato. She must have something very important to say to us."

They all continued on without further conversation. Shinji stopped trying to come up with guesses as to the reason all of this was happening and thought of everything he had learned while nearly creating the Third Impact. Finally, they reached Misato, who stood against a wall with her eyes closed. As they approached, she opened her eyes and raised a gun at them very quickly. Seeing it was them, she lowered the gun.

"Finally. We need to talk." She said.

"Tell us about it." Shinji said.

"Obviously, something has gone really wrong. The last thing I remember was kissing Shinji and then dying." Misato says.

"I know, this is just-" Shinji started to say.

"Wait a minute! You kissed him?" a disgusted Asuka says.

"Yes. I never thought I'd see him again, so-"

"UGH! That has got to be the most disgusting thing I've ever heard! You, of all people, kissing wonder boy over here?!"

"Asuka, you are really getting off the point here!" Shinji says.

"Ah, standin' up for your lover now, Shinji?" Asuka asks, grinning at him.

"Er, um… I…" Shinji stuttered.

"We don't have time to worry about who kissed who or what kid at school is hot and who's ugly, we need to find out what the hell happened!" Rei exclaims.

"Keep your voice down!" Misato whispers.

"Why? Why did we need to meet in secret?" Shinji asks.

"Whoever's responsible for undoing the Third Impact might be spying on us. Something happened, and it's big." Misato explains.

"Of course it's big."

Everyone looked around themselves to see where the voice had come from. It had just popped out of nowhere. It had been a male voice, around the age of 14-16, and slightly deep.

"Who are you?!" Asuka demanded.

"The hand that rocks the cradle."

"What's that supposed to mean? Do you mean someone who manipulated us?" Shinji asks.

"Nah, I just liked that movie. `The Hand that rocks the cradle.'"

"Where are you?" Rei asks, squinting to look into shadows to see if there was someone hiding.

"I believe the actual question is, `Where are you going?'"

"No, it's not. The question is where are you!" Misato shouts, pointing the gun in multiple directions.

"I thought the question was, `Who are you?' Or perhaps it is, `What do you want?' Maybe even, `Why are you here?'"

"What are you talking about?" Shinji asks.

"Haven't you people seen any twentieth-century TV? Babylon 5, one of the best shows on television? Although fifth season sort of screwed it over… Stupid Turner Network Television…"

"Show yourself!" Misato demanded, ready to pull the trigger at a moment's notice.

"Ah, can't I just be all mysterious and stuff? It's a lot more fun!"

"Damn it, show yourself!" Misato screamed.

"Well, since you asked so nicely."

Out of a completely luminated wall, the boy from Shinji's earlier experience walked over to them, a smug expression on his face. Shinji recognized him immediately, and was too dazed to understand what was happening.

"Hello!" he said, still looking chipper.

Misato raised her gun to meet the boy's face. He continued to smile, even as Misato pulled the trigger from an subconscious urge to do so. The boy fell back onto the ground, a small hole in his forehead, and his smile faded immediately.

"YOU KILLED HIM! WHY?!" Asuka demands.

"OW!"

Everyone looked down at the corpse, who now was holding his head in pain, and he got up. He walked over to Misato, the bullet hole now gone, and went right in front of her face.

"Has anyone ever told you," he whispers.

"That you have a SERIOUS ANGER MANAGEMENT PROBLEM!?!?" He continues, shouting.

Misato dropped the gun onto the ground, not comprehending how he could have survived. Even Rei was stunned at this boy who had just survived a bullet, point-blank to the head.

"That just gave me an effin' migraine! How would you like it if I put a gun to your head and shot you?!"

Misato's eyes slowly began to water as the boy put the gun about a foot away from Misato's head. The others were too shocked to respond. Misato closed her eyes, and he pulled the trigger. A small flag with the word BANG on it appeared.

"Geez, you have no sense of humor!"

He spun the flag around as he shook his hand around in a circle. Misato slowly got up and walked over to the others.

"Who are you?" Shinji asks.

"It's not my time to say." He replied.

"Who are you?" Asuka repeats.

The boy thought for a moment. He then snapped his fingers and replied, "Who decides that the toast lands butter side down every time? Who decides that red means stop and green means go? Who decides the workday is from 9:00 to 5:00, instead of 11:00 to 4:00? Who decides that the hemlines will be below the knee this year, and short again, the next year? Who draws up the borders, controls the currency, handles all those little decisions that happen transparently around us?"

"I don't know." Shinji replies.

"Correct. I'm with them. Same group, different department. I'm here to help you." He says.

"Well, if you can tell us what's happened, that'd be a great help." Rei speaks.

"I'm not really allowed to tell you straight out. But to learn truly, you must save the `I' that does not see." He replies.

"The eye that does not see? What the hell's that supposed to mean!?" Asuka demands, almost ready to strangle the boy.

"You must not kill the one who is already dead." He says, sensing Asuka's anger.

"WE DON'T UNDERSTAND!" Shinji shouts.

"Understanding is a three-edged sword." He said, grinning gleefully.

Shinji had had enough. He walked up to the boy and smashed his fist right into his nose. The others were taken back by this very un-Shinji thing to do. The boy walked back, holding a bleeding nose, who yelled, "OW! What the hell did you do that for, Ikari?!"

"I am SICK AND TIRED OF THIS. You people never give me a straight answer! It's always some stupid, cryptic metaphor that we can't answer! It happens in my mind, it happens out here, and now I want to know JUST WHAT THE HELL YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT!" he explains.

The boy's nosebleed disappears, and he pushes Shinji into a wall and stands a foot away from him. "You want answers? FINE. This isn't real. Everything that has been happening in the past 36 hours has been a lie. You are all laying in a SEELE lab, with them trying to find out the secret behind creating the Third Impact, and them pumping you all up with psychotropic drugs, NONE OF THIS IS REAL! There was no third impact, Rei never merged with Lillith, and you people are all under the experiment that will doom mankind! Gum?" The boy held out a piece of bubble gum to Shinji.

To Be Continued…