Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction ❯ Evangelion: Tribulations After ❯ Clues I ( Chapter 5 )

Shinji cut into some more of the French toast and ate the piece he had cut out. The mysterious boy sat onto the nearby table, cross-legged. He was now in civilian clothes of a white T-shirt and blue jeans. He had black boots on his feet.

"So, how is it?" he asked.

"Great! What did you call it again?" Shinji asks.

"French Toast. Used to eat it back in the day." The boy replied.

"And which day would that be?" Shinji inquired.

"The day a long time ago." The boy replied.

Shinji put down his fork and said, "You know, while I'm in the hospital, I've been watching some of that Babylon 5 show you're so obsessed with. Couldn't help but notice you taking a line from them here and there."

The boy shrugs. "Babylon 5 is good for two things: entertainment and life lessons, Ikari. Take the words I steal for what they are."

The conversation was interrupted by a knock on the door. Shinji called for whomever it was to come in, and looked at the boy again, only to see he had disappeared. Asuka, Misato, and Rei walked into the hospital room, Rei carrying flowers.

"Hey wonder boy, look what we brought." Asuka says.

"Guys, you didn't have to." Shinji smiles.

"You know, Shinji, seeing you smile… It's going to be a weird thing to get used to." Asuka states.

"Get used to it. Thanks to that mysterious boy, I've had an epiphany. I am going to appreciate my own life. As soon as I can leave the hospital, I'm taking you three out on a night on the town." Shinji says.

"Sounds nice." Rei says.

"Bet you a hundred yen he gets drunk and tries to sleep with me." Asuka suggests.

Rei smiles and replies, "You're on."

"It seems we've all changed a little thanks to this boy. Rei has a soul directly connected to her, Asuka's not suicidal, and Shinji's not an obsessive compulsive depressant…" Misato says.

"What about you, Misato? What has our new friend done for you lately?" Shinji asks, taking in a piece of French toast into his mouth.

Misato just closed her eyes and didn't answer the question.

"I actually wouldn't consider him a friend yet. Hey may have helped us all, but he's still being overly secretive. He doesn't tell us who he is or how he knows the things he knows. We don't know how he got the powers he has, like to walk through walls, the wings, or even his connection to us while we were in the dream SEELE created." Asuka reminds them.

"I think we should let him have his privacy. He'll tell us his secrets when he's ready." Rei says.

"And I won't wait."

Everyone turned and saw Ritsuko leaning against the doorway.

"Ritsuko, you're out of the mental recovery ward." Shinji states.

"Well, having a dream where your mother betrayed you for her lover and then getting shot by that lover isn't exactly a pleasant thing to get over overnight. I'm ready to return to work at NERV, but there's a little project I'd like to run first." She says.

"What kind of project?" Shinji asks.

"The NERV database has files on that kid, but most of the ones pertaining to his identity are classified, accepting Gendou's handprint, voice code, retinal pattern, and handwriting before letting anyone see it. There are some unclassified files that I'm discovering. These are clues to the mysterious boy's identity. I'm going to look at them, and see if I can't find out who that kid is." Ritsuko reports.

Ritsuko looked at the large computer screen in front of her. There were twenty files in front of her, and most of them were marked classified.

"Computer, begin first file in non-classifieds that has relevance to my search." Ritsuko commands.

The file brings up a report made in 2002 by an officer, made by audio.

"We were near Antarctica today. Most of us have been scared to go there ever since that meteor collided into it, afraid of what kind of radiation or poisons could still be with it," the man said in the file.

Ritsuko rolled her eyes, as she knew that it had been no meteor that had collided and caused the Second Impact.

"But we were given orders, and we had to obey them. It was turning dark quickly, faster than we'd expected, and getting colder. One of my men went down below to grab us some warmer coats when we saw it. There were three of us at the time, and we'll never forget what we saw. To our right, on a floating chunk of ice, a bright light suddenly appeared. None of us had been facing the right, but we looked at it immediately as soon as we saw this large flash out of the corner of our eyes. We looked to investigate, and for about ten seconds, we could see a boy, around fourteen years old, just standing on the ice. He had his arms crossed as he looked out onto everything.

"We hadn't been very surprised. Many people had been venturing down here ever since the meteor collided, thinking it was actually some kind of religious thing. What really took us by surprise was the fact that there seemed to solids sources of light on his back, shaped like wings. He suddenly looked in our direction and just disappeared. We're writing this up as a hallucination caused by the cold and possible radiation from the meteor. End report."

The file stopped. Ritsuko stopped and thought for a moment.

"They weren't very descriptive about the boy, but the fourteen years sounds right. But that just opens new mysteries. If this is the same boy, what was he doing at Antarctica, and how was he still fourteen after we met him fourteen years later? Computer, what's the next file un-classified?"

"News coverage for opening of NERV. Would you like to process?"

"Show me."

The image flickered to that of a CNN broadcast, subtitled in Japanese letters.

"We are here live in Tokyo-3 for the opening of an organization designed to help the world after the meteor crash of 2000. The supposed leader of this organization is one Gendou Ikari, who will is in charge of supervising the-"

The reporter stopped talking when she suddenly noticed that the cameraman was looking up, now. The mysterious boy was there, floating in the sky! He was floating thanks to the wings on his back, and now wore a white jumpsuit and a cape with a large collar as well. He held in his hand a flaming white sword. Officers began to open fire upon him, but he ignored the bullets. He raised the sword into the air, and then charged down at Gendou. Gendou only looked at the boy with shock as he came down, preparing to kill Gendou where he stood. But then, two feet away from Gendou, he just disappeared. Nothing on the tape could offer any explanation or could tell what had just happened. The file ended.

"What's going on here? The boy not only seen at Antarctica, but then was there at the opening of NERV? Why was he trying to kill Ikari? Well, besides the obvious reasons…"

Ritsuko looked at the list of the other files, even the ones encrypted.

"Computer, could I access the MAGI, have it design a program to break the codes inserted into the system?"

"Affirmative. Projected time to completion of such decrypting: two weeks."

"Start it. Divert any non-essential systems into it. We need those files. What about the next non-encrypted file?"

"Processing…"

The screen showed energy readings inside of NERV. The records were from when SEELE had placed them in the dream state. The energy readings all read normal, except for the areas containing the EVAs, which were beginning to rise in certain parts, but subsided soon afterwards. Suddenly, the energy readings in a room nearby where Misato, Shinji, Asuka, and Rei had been kept rose sharply for no reason! The readings were similar to that of the Angels', but not the same.

"Could the mysterious boy be an Angel?" Ritsuko asked herself.

"Unlikely."

Ritsuko turned around to see Misato standing in the doorway. She walked over and looked at the energy readings.

"There were seventeen Angels. All of them have been accounted for, starting with Adam and ending with Kaoru. Unless you count humans, which are technically the eighteenth Angel." She said.

"But it doesn't make sense. Who is this guy? Where did he come from? What does he want?" Ritsuko asked the rhetorical questions.

"How many clips about this guy do you have?" Misato questioned.

"One more, from when he stopped Lillith. Everything else is highly classified." Ritsuko replies.

"Show me." Misato commanded.

Units 01 and 02 watched Lillith began to ascend, but then noticed the boy holding his arms out in the air. Suddenly, bulges grew on his back, and then the green plug suit he wore began to split in the back. The sight before them stunned Asuka and Shinji as white energy began to grow out of the boy's back. Then, suddenly, they were eight feet long energy bands that all came out of the same two spots on the boy's back. They flapped up and the boy flew towards Lillith. Unit 13 put it's arm in front of the boy, but the boy just narrowed his eyes and increased speed, slamming straight through the hand and punching a hole through it and continued to fly towards Lillith. Lillith took one look at the boy and stopped floating. It just hovered there as the boy flew up to above it. They just hovered there for ten seconds, until the boy finally spoke.

"This is not the time. They," the boy spoke, pointing towards Asuka and Shinji, "are not for you…yet. Do you understand?"

Lillith nodded.

"Leave now. You know how POed the big J gets when he has to wait." The boy said, smiling.

Lillith nodded, and disappeared.

"Big J? Could he mean Jesus?" Ritsuko asks.

"J can mean anything. For all we know it could be John Wayne." Misato replies.

"Still, with the flight, the mysterious powers, he could be a real angel!" Ritsuko suggests.

"Quit poking around."

The voice had come from nowhere, and yet everywhere. Standing, quite angrily, on the wall was the mysterious boy. His eyes were narrowed at Ritsuko and Misato.

"You should not concern yourself in things that don't involve you." He stated.

"Well, if you're a danger to us, it does involve us." Ritsuko says, standing up.

"I believe my assistance in stopping the Third Impact shows my colors. I've been watching, helping you people since day one. I saw your mother kill the first Rei, I saw her commit suicide, I saw all the clones of Rei being created, I saw the Second Impact first hand, and I knew about the souls of Asuka's mother and Shinji's mother within the EVAs before anyone gave it a first or half thought. I've protected you people from harm since before you were born, and all you can do is be the stupid curious human beings that you are."

"If you're not human, what are you?" Ritsuko growls.

The boy walked over to Ritsuko, and quickly placed his hands on Ritsuko's head. Images, scenes, entire years flashed before Ritsuko's eyes. She saw death, rebirth, blood, life, and the torments of her own soul before she even knew what was happening. Ritsuko collapsed onto the ground, crying.

"What did you do to her?!" Misato demanded.

The boy turned and faced Misato. He asked, "What do you know about hell, Misato? Would you like to see it? Her's and mine?"

Misato was bewildered, but understood the moment the boy touched his hands upon her head. Images from both Ritsuko's mind and the boy's mind flashed into Misato, who screamed from the mental tension placed on her. The boy finally let go of her, and she collapsed onto the ground as well, panting and crying.

"What… What are you?" Ritsuko weakly asked.

"I am truth. I am a messenger. Nothing more. Stop trying to understand things that don't concern you, Ritsuko. For your benefit, and for those children Misato claims to protect."

The mysterious boy vanished in front of their eyes.

To Be Continued…