The Ikari Revelation Project

Something echoes up through the sword in your hands, and you swear that the Angel stares you directly in the eyes.

⌿⎍⎐⊬⍾ ⏚⌇ ⋏⍾⋏⋉, ⎎⊬⋏⟟⍀ ☌⏚ ☌⎍⍀ ⊬⎐⊬⊬⎐⋉.

Then… It turns away.

Your ears ring, a high pitched whine that throbs in time with the thundering tempo of your heart at your temples, all of it deafeningly loud as you watch the Angel slowly start to lumber away. You stare at the creature's back, struggling against what feels like the weight of the world to raise a hand…

But… Nothing.

Your fingers start to go num- No. Wait. Those aren't your fingers. Those are the Eva's fingers. Unit 01's fingers go numb. Numb enough that you can barely feel the way that the massive Kesara blade slips free of your grasp, dropping and crashing to the ground by your side.

Somewhere past the ringing and the thumping and that horrible feeling like you've swallowed a balloon that is too big for your head you can hear words. You don't think that is Miss Misato, but at the moment all meaning has been lost to you, and the words are little more than random sounds.

Still… The fact that you can hear them, means that they should be able to hear you. "⍾…" You barely manage to mutter even that much before your throat seizes up painfully. Grabbing hold of the Eva's handles, you growl and push your thoughts into the massive humanoid machine, trying to repeat what you managed to do so easily before.

But the machine refuses to move, standing tall in the dark of the night, head tilted just ever so slightly back. "⍾... ⍾ ⋉⏁⊬'☊"

Your words feel a little clearer, but at the same time there is something about the words themselves that sound wrong. Shaking your head, you pull one hand back to try and massage your aching throat. There has to be something that you can do. Something to try and stop the angel from escaping. But… Even when you jerk back on the handles as hard as you can, nothing changes. The Eva continues to stand there like the colossus of Rhodes.

With a quiet huff, you lean back in your seat and let go of the controls. Breathing slowly, the pain and the ringing in your head starts to fade, enough so that words start to make sense again. "Sachiel is in retreat." One of the technicians calls out. "I repeat - Blood Type Blue Designation Sachiel(זכיאל) has withdrawn from the Area of Operation. Sachiel has reached the city limits and is continuing outwards along the same vector. Bringing Magistatum tracking systems online. Vector Coursing active. Delineating the quantum relation, and establishing topographical readings. Analysis marks the Angel as proceeding towards the ocean. Sachiel is expected to make seafall within fourty-three minutes and twenty-one seconds, with margins for error of eleven point three seven seven two seconds. Initializing satellite reconnaissance now."

Sitting there in the cockpit of the Eva, struggling to breath, you glance over towards Miss Misato on the screen. "Is it… Is it finally over?" You ask.

Misato is quiet for a moment, eyes locked on something outside of the window's line of sight, her lips pressed into a tight line, before she takes a breath, and for a brief flicker of a moment you almost swear that you see a hint of a smile on her face before she schools her expression. "We can't say for certain. Not yet… But everything here seems to imply that Sachiel is leaving. We're going to have you stay in the Eva for a while longer, just in case the Angel decides to come back, but that shouldn't take too long."

"That's… good." You admit softly, "Because right now I'm not sure that I'd even be able to get Unit 01 to move."

"What do you…" Misato starts to ask, before she glances over towards another one of the screens and winces. "Thirty-four percent. Yikes." She shakes her head, before glancing up at you again. "Just sit back and… Wait a moment. Shinji, look at me."

Turning to look at her directly, you can't not see the way that she grimaces. "Ah. That's not supposed to be happening. Get me a line to Ritsuko, inform the medical team that our newest pilot is going to be visiting them, and prep a medical bed at the closest insertion dock."

There is a moment of quiet, before she turns and snaps out a sharp "Now!"

That doesn't sound good. Not at all. "Miss Misato what's…" You start to ask, as without thinking about it, you bring a hand up, lightly running it over your face. As your thumb swipes close to your nose, you feel something warmer than the surrounding LCL. Pulling your hand out in front of you, you quickly spot a blot of bright red on your thumb, along with a small amount of the same color drifting outwards through the clear LCL, twisting like red smoke.

What?

Wait.

You blink, ignoring the tiny twinge of- No. You don't ignore the tiny twinge of pain from right behind your eye. Wiping your thumb at the top of your lip – Yep, more blood. Tracing the trail upwards by feeling alone, your fingers find their way to your tear duct.

You are, or at the very least were bleeding from your left eye. Immediately, your hand snaps over to the other side of your face, but there isn't any blood there. Just from the one eye. That's still not good, but it could be worse.

Probably.

Turning, you wince a little, moving like that makes your head twinge, and the pumping of your blood at your temples a little stronger. The pain is still less than it was, but you know almost nothing about head injuries. Other than the fact that they bleed a lot.

"Miss Misato, why am I bleeding? Is this normal?" Your voice is quivering, but surely Miss Misato knows what's going on. Right?

Except, if she did know what was going on, she wouldn't have reacted the way that she did. If she expected any of this, then the medical team and Miss Ritsuko would have already been prepped for this.

This isn't something that anyone expected.

"Shinji, everything is going to be fine. As soon as you are capable of moving Unit 01 again, I want you to–" Miss Misato starts to say.

"She is going to stay right there." Your father's words are short and clipped. "We are not certain that Sachiel will not return. So until the Angel has left Japanese territory, we must stay vigilant."

"Sir-" Misato starts to ask, turning back towards where your father has to be. Before you have a chance to ask anything, the window disappears. After a few minutes of silence, the window opens up again. Miss Misato is there, her face carefully blank and her shoulders set back. "Pilot Ikari, you are to stay at the current location for the next hour. If the angel has not changed course in that period of time, you will report to the following location."

Another window pops up on the other side of the plug, this one a map of Tokyo Novus, showing both where you are, as well as a parking lot.

"Once you arrive at the recovery station, Unit 01 will be brought back into the geofront, and you will be retrieved from the Entry plug and brought to NERV's medical facilities." Miss Misato says.

Carefully reaching down, you try and force your thoughts into Unit 01 again, and this time things do feel a little different from how they did before. It isn't like ramming your head against a brick wall, but you still can't make the giant machine move.

---

In the end, there isn't anything that you can do. You just have to sit there, waiting. The next hour creeps by slowly, every minute seeming to stretch out longer and longer than the last. Add onto that the fact that you are trying not to move, not when it might make whatever is happening worse.

So the only thing that you can do is sit there in the dark, staring out through Unit 01's eyes up at the still darkening skies overhead.

You sit and you think, you think and you sit.

Sitting and thinking. Thinking and sitting.

On and on and on.

That's the only thing that you can do at the moment.

You sit there, thinking about just how strange your life has suddenly become. It hasn't even been twelve hours yet. Half a day ago you were an ordinary high schooler, living your life one day at a time. You had hopes and dreams, but they were ordinary things.'

Well, mostly ordinary.

You've wanted to be an astronaut for years now, ever since one of your science teachers showed your class a video of the first moon landing back when you were in the first grade. At first it was just because you wanted to go to space, but…

Somewhere along the way parts of that changed. A part of it was still just leaving, but that was nothing compared to the realization that if something like the Tomino impact happened a second time humanity might not survive. So you wanted to push mankind forwards, to make it so that it would be impossible for some random rock to destroy everything that humanity built. And there was the wonder and awe at the realization that if people rose up on the Earth, then mathematically speaking there has to be other races out there.

Other people who aren't human.

New lifeforms and new civilizations.

Through all of that, you were expecting to be forced to barely make it to the next closest planet, puttering about in a tiny little shuttle from before the Tomino impact that would struggle to even land after reentry…

Because that seems to be the best that humanity can do at the time.

Now, less than half a day later, you're sitting in the pilot seat of a machine more advanced than anything that you've ever seen before. More advanced than anything that you've ever heard of. A machine that you control with your thoughts alone.

You have to wonder - Just how much of the technology involved in creating the Evangelions might be better used helping humanity push forwards? You summoned forth an Artificial AT field. Can an AAT field stop radiation? Could this technology be used in the medical field or in construction?

Heck, just building something smaller but just as agile as the Eva would completely revolutionize the construction industry. So why haven't you heard of the EVAs before this?

Why isn't any of this technology being used to make the world a better place? Sighing, you lean forwards in your seat, grabbing hold of the handles inside the plug once more. You aren't entirely sure how you know, but something just clicks in your head and tells you that it has been an hour now.

Slowly, you allow your eyes to close as you push your thoughts and feelings out towards the machine around you. One hand lets go, fingers splaying out at the same time that Unit 01's fingers do. Pulling your arm up, you feel the way that Unit 01 matches your own movements. You do the same with Unit 01's other arm, flexing the fingers and moving the arm, just without any movements of your own. Turning slowly, you allow the massive machine's gaze to sweep over the cityscape. You'd lost sight of the police colored machine before you lost your connection to Unit 01, so you aren't sure where it went.

Or if it and its pilot are still around.

Honestly, you aren't sure if you hoped that they had the chance to go home already, or if you hoped that they were still out here with you. It shouldn't be too much of a concern, because the Angel is long gone, but…

Unit 01 shakes its head in place of your own, before you turn and start to slowly plod along the streets of Tokyo Novus towards the parking lot that you are being directed towards. Now that you aren't fighting for your life, you have the chance to pay attention to your surroundings. Somewhere off to one side you spot a tiny flicker of light, and turning to look down at it, you spot a young girl, standing there face slack with awe and her phone held up.

There's another tiny flash from the back of her phone, and you realize that she's taking pictures of Unit 01. Without really thinking about it, you give the girl an idle wave. She starts, clearly not realizing that you spotted her, so you give her a thumbs up. There's another flash from her phone, before she waves back at you and runs off.

There isn't anyone else around at the moment, but once you start moving you quickly realize why. Passing through an intersection, you spot a handful of police two blocks away, having cordoned off the roads. Honestly, that makes sense, it wouldn't do for there to be cars left around for Unit 01 to accidentally step on. Not that you've seen that many cars around to begin with. You know that Tokyo Novus has a pretty robust subway system. In fact, even before you found out that your father was here in Tokyo Novus, you'd heard that the city was among the top twenty-five cities in the world for being able to get around without needing a vehicle.

At the time, you thought it something of a waste, the fact that there were all these roads and no real need for them…

But if the roads aren't for cars, but are for the Evas instead…

Well that makes the fact that the city doesn't need them make even more sense. Just trying to imagine fighting something like Sachiel while having to try and avoid stepping on people's cars would be a nightmare. As you continue walking along the roads, you slowly start to spot more and more people. Here and there you spot groups of people on the rooftops of various buildings. There's also faces poking out from some of the windows, and even a handful of people a little further away in the alleyways between the buildings. Thankfully, there isn't anyone up close near your feet, because you don't know how you'd avoid accidentally hurting someone.

Just the idea of accidentally stepping on someone makes you a little nauseous. Still… Seeing the city start to come to life like this is…

Is…

Is what though? What is this feeling that is thrumming in your chest? You aren't sure. But you like the way that it feels. Continuing forwards, you spot the parking lot that the map is directing you towards. Or, at the very least you are pretty sure that is the parking lot you are looking for, given the way that a part of the center of the lot lets off a burst of air, the edges folding down before a section lowers down into the ground, and twists off to the side.

Rising up out of the hole in the ground is another one of the massive elevators that NERV used to ferry Unit 01 up from the Geofront takes its place.

Stepping onto the elevator, you make sure to put your- to put Unit 01's feet onto the designated footprints. After a moment, a series of restraints click into place, holding your arms, legs, and shoulders into place. You hadn't really noticed the restraints when you were being pulled up to the surface, but they are almost distractingly tight now that you've been piloting the evangelion.

Maybe that makes sense, the restraints had already been in place before you got into the plug, let alone before you had synced up with Unit 01, so the feeling would have already been there.

You try and relax, ignoring the pressure against your side, befo-

Unlike the way that ordinary elevators start moving slowly, the massive evangelion elevator simply starts to drop, your stomach feeling like it lurches up into your lungs as you fall. Hands clench tight on the handles inside the machine, while Unit 01's hands can't do anything more than clasp onto your thighs.

In its own way, this is even more terrifying than fighting Sachiel was. You simply continue to fall, without any means of bracing yourself or getting ready for… You keep descending, but you can feel the way that the fall starts to subtly shift and slow. You aren't falling as fast as you were a moment ago, and with each passing moment the elevator is slowing a little more.

By the time that you reach the floor of the Geofront, the Elevator clicks into place with little more than a soft jolt that runs through Unit 01. Glancing around, you see the many members of the support staff moving quickly. This might not be the same bay where you were inserted into Unit 01, but–

Before you have a chance to finish that thought, a message scrawls along the inside of the plug. Evangelion System Shutdown Process Initiated. Then, several things all start to happen.

First, something thick and heavy tightens down around Unit 01's arms and legs, locking them in place.

Then your senses shift as your mind is pulled back into yourself, your connection to Unit 01 having been severed.

Next, you notice the way that the LCL around you starts to darken, shifting from glass clear back to the off-golden red that the liquid was when it was first pumped into the entry plug with you.

After that, the screens along the inside of the plug start to turn off, one after another in a wave of darkness that fills the plug. At the same time, you start to feel and hear the slight rush of liquids as the LCL begins to drain out of the plug, and a bubble of air appears at the top of the plug.

CLUNK!

Something heavy impacts the top of the plug, and after a moment it starts to twist and pull backwards, lifting the entire plug out of Unit 01.

As your connection to Unit 01 disappears, you shudder, a heavy thing that runs down through you hard enough that your hands spasm out of control. You aren't sure that there is any word in any language that has the descriptions to even start to describe this sensation. The feeling of your mind, your self being reeled back into your body like a tape measure when you press the little button on it. Your you is pulled tight inside of yourself, squished down and compressed tight while being stretched out and layered thin into a shape that is both achingly familiar, but one that feels all wrong nonetheless.

As the last of the LCL drains away, the machine that picked up the plug starts to move again, twisting the plug so that it is orientated the right way as it slides into what you would assume to be the same kind of cradle that the plug was in when Miss Ritsuko first explained everything about piloting the evangelion to you. You start trying to peel yourself out of the helm seat, but your clothing is still soaked in LCL, making them stick to everything around you.

With a puff of compressed air, the top half of the entry plug rises up before sliding backwards. Looking down at yourself you grimace. Everything that you are wearing has been completely ruined. All of it a total loss. Leaning over, you brace a hand against the edge of the plug – Ow!

The moment that you touched the edge of the plug, something sparked against your skin, sharp and hot.

– Pulling back you shake the feeling back into your hand, before you reach over again, lightly touching the edge a second time just to make sure that whatever shocked you doesn't do so a second time. Nothing. You must have just generated a bit of static at some point. Hopping over the edge of the plug, something clicks about the strangely familiar feeling of wrongness that has been pervading over you all this time.

It is a feeling that you've had before. Time and time again. Nearly every morning in fact, a sense that something about who you are, and more importantly how you are is all wrong. A sense that your limbs aren't the right length, or that your skin isn't the right size.

There is a moment where you very nearly stumble, your instincts screaming at you as you try to move, arguing that bits of you are different sizes than they very clearly are. You don't even have time to stumble however, as a medical team is already in the room. Before you realize what is happening, they've already strapped you to a gurney, and are moving you through the halls of NERV HQ.

---

NERV HQ's medical facilities are just as amazing as everything else that you've seen since you first arrived. After learning that you started bleeding out of the eye during your battle with the Angel, Doctor Ritsuko all but demanded that you go through a whole battery of different tests.

There are only a handful of these that you actually recognize, and even those aren't anything like you recognize.

Well… Taking blood is taking blood. There's nothing out of the ordinary about that, but it was the other tests that really took you by surprise. You've heard of MRIs. You've seen them in movies and some of the medical dramas that your uncle likes to watch. The machines that they use to take an MRI are massive, needing the patient to lay down on a bed and be moved into them.

The MRI here is much smaller, closer to the size of one of those fancy salon chair hair dryers. And it works in much the same way – All you had to do was sit in the chair as the electronics studded bowl was lowered over your head. Another thing that you weren't expecting from the machine was just how quick it was.

It only ends up taking ten minutes for the MRI to scan your brain. You're… pretty sure that an MRI is supposed to take longer than that, but you aren't going to complain. Because everything here took less time than you thought it would. Even taking into account the fact that you had blood taken, and the MRI, and the four other tests that the Doctor had you take, it was maybe an hour and a half that you've been here in the medical ward.

The only part of all of this that you've found yourself uncomfortable with is the fact that once you arrived here at the Medical ward, the nurses who brought you here all but demanded that you give over the ruined and LCL soaked clothing that you were wearing, and instead they gave you a pair a ill-fitting and slightly itchy yoga pants and a shirt made from the same itchy material. It is… irritating against your skin.

"So… Do we know why I started bleeding?" You ask the doctor after a few minutes of quiet.

Doctor Ritsuko sighs, before she leans back in her chair. The woman reaches for something in a coat pocket before she glances over at you and huffs quietly. You raise an eyebrow at her, but she just shakes her head. "At the moment… No. In fact, other than a small amount of bruising around the Wernicke area of your brain, and a slight hormonal imbalance, you seem to have a clean bill of health."

"The Wernicke area?" You ask… You know a lot of different parts of the brain, but you haven't heard of that one.

Doctor Ritsuko chuckles, "It is a part of the auditory cortex. In layman's terms, it is the part of your brain that turns sounds into language. What is particularly odd is the fact that the auditory cortex is near the back of your brain." Doctor Ritsuko says, tapping the back of her own head with two fingers. "So you wouldn't have any bleeding out through the eye with an injury there, and even then the amount of inflammation that you are showing isn't nearly enough for any kind of cranial bleeding to have taken place. It also doesn't match up with where you were complaining about pain. Perhaps you simply tore one of your occipital muscles due to the stress and strain of fighting in the evangelion?"

Ritsuko is quiet for a moment longer. "Admittedly, none of the other pilots have exhibited symptoms similar to that during their training, but you are the first pilot to have faced off against an actual angel. And you are the first pilot to have managed to generate an AAT field, so it is possible that that was a side effect of that. We'll likely know more in the morning when the results of the other tests finish compiling. And even though the injury to your brain is extremely minor, I would prefer that you stay overnight for observation, just to make sure that we haven't missed anything."

You nod a little at that, before Ritsuko glances back down to the file in her hand. "And that brings me to the other thing of note. The chemical imbalances." She gives you a look. "Puberty blockers?"

You nod. It is… strange to talk about this with someone other than your primary doctor. Oh actually. "Right. My doctor before all of this was Doctor Yamaguchi at…" You rattle off the address and phone number for your old doctor. "She should be able to get you all of my paperwork, medical history and anything else that you need."

Doctor Ritsuko blinks in surprise. "Doctor Ayako Yamaguchi?"

Now it is your turn to blink in surprise. "You know Doctor Yamaguchi?"

Ritsuko chuckles. "She was the doctor that I served my residency with. Taught me more than medical school ever did. It'll be nice to have a chance to catch back up with her." The doctor opens her mouth, about to say something more when the door behind her slides open.

Your father is standing there.

"Ritsuko." Your father says. "I would like to speak with my child in private." His tone is as flat as it ever was, but there is something in his eyes. Something… Familiar, but you aren't entirely sure what it is.

Ritsuko glances between the two of you before nodding. "Remember what I said, Shinji. I want you to stay here overnight for observation. We can resume our conversation after I contact your previous pcp."

With that, Ritsuko stands up, giving Father another nod. You… There was something on Ritsuko's face there, but that couldn't have been what you thought it was. There was no way that…

Leaning back in your seat, you look up at Father who continues to stand there across from you. "You wished for answers after dealing with the Angel." Father says simply. "The fact that you required assistance from the Tokyo Novus Heavy Mechanics and their waste of an armored police project was disappointing… However, you prevented Sachiel from entering the Geofront. You have surpassed my expectations, and proven yourself to be… Adequate. For now. Ask your questions, and if they are not banal, then perhaps I shall answer them."
It takes everything that you have to keep yourself from scowling. You… It has been a long, long time since you've last seen your father. A decade now, so there are a lot of things that you don't know about the man in front of you.

In a way, he's almost more of a stranger than Miss Misato or Miss Ritsuko.

Actually… That thought clicks together in your head, and something like a grin starts to cross your face. More teeth than smile. Still, you carefully stand up.

Across from you, Father simply raises an eyebrow. "It has been a long time since we last saw each other, Father. So let us do this properly – My name is Shinji Ikari. Your and Mother's daughter. I enjoy studying languages, outer space, and watching pre-Impact movies. My favorite food is…" You start to introduce yourself the way that you would to someone that you've never met, and there is a little part of you that notes with a tinge of amusement that your father's eyebrow twitches as you finish your introduction. "...And you are?"

Father stands there for a long moment, arms crossed as he stares at you. Finally, after you start to worry that you might have made a mistake, Father tilts his head just slightly forwards so that he looks at you over the top of his glasses. "Greetings, Shinji Ikari. I am Gendo Ikari, your father - You may refer to me as Father, Director, Supreme Commander, or some combination of the three. I enjoy my work, studying archeology in my spare time - Particularly Levantine Archeology, rearranging Tokyo Novus as part of my ongoing attempts to develop the perfect train system, and knitting. My favorite food is Korean Kimchi Jjigae, and I prefer to spend my time off hours connecting with the few people that I still consider friends in this imperfect world, or reminiscing about the times that I had with your mother."

…You stare at your Father, trying to make sense of the introduction that he just gave you. To be entirely honest, you were expecting to have irritated your father with that question. But it seems that he has given you an honest answer.

Maybe. There were some rather mundane things in that introduction, but at the same time he mentioned rearranging an entire city as a hobby. How in the world is that a hobby?

Is… You spend a moment working your jaw, struggling to try and wrap your head around what your father just said. Eventually, you have to put that off to the side. You are here trying to ask your father questions. Trying to get a better understanding of your role in all of this.

"I… See. Thank you for that new introduction, Father."

"Please, Shinji - You are my only child. Refer to me as Director Father."

What in the world is happening here?

"I…" Gritting your teeth for a moment, you bring your focus back to what you are wanting to ask. At the very least, it seems that your father has let down some of his walls around you. So you might get a more honest answer out of all of this.

An honest answer.

Oh. glancing over to the backpack at the edge of the doctor's table that you spent more than a few minutes resting on, you reach over and pull it to you. Rifling through it for a moment, you pull out the paperwork that you showed to Misato.

That was only earlier today, but it feels like it was months and months ago.

"You sent me this, Father." You say simply, holding out the entirely redacted file. "This is completely useless to me, can I have one that… Isn't?"

Father chuckles softly. "Now that you have proven that you are capable of serving adequately, I believe that can be arranged."

…You somewhat expected that question to be harder to get an answer out of than this. But then again, that almost entirely sums up the conversation that you are having right now. None of this is making any…

Wait. Capable of serving adequately. What does your father mean by that? The fact that you managed to fend off Sachiel is what your father deemed as being Adequate.

"I…" You stop for a moment, trying to figure out how to phrase this all over again. "You said that I surpassed your expectations. That I was adequate today. What exactly are you expecting from me going forward?"

Father's gaze sharpens as he stands back up straight, his eyes once more hidden behind his glasses. "What do I expect from you, Shinji? I expect you to fight the Angels. I expect you to do everything within your power to keep the people of Tokyo Novus, the Geofront, and the world safe from the dangers of the Angels, the dangers lurking in the shadows, and any other threat that means ill of Earth, Humanity, or the Honors Inception Program. I expect that given the way that you have exceeded my expectations today that you will require the assistance of Rei once she recovers, and even then…" Father pauses again, before he sighs. "Saying it like that may give you an inaccurate sense of what I am expecting. So I shall say it simply. I expect that you shall follow the orders that I, as the Director, and as your Father give to you. I expect that things will not be easy, but in the end the ultimate goal shall be achieved."

Again, there is something about all of this that is just continuing to add up with the rest of it. And it is starting to give you a feeling that…

A feeling that you don't like. A feeling like if you keep asking questions you are going to keep getting answers that make you wonder.

A question wets the back of your throat, but you stop. You swallow it down, at least for the moment. Because that question will almost certainly make or break this terrible thought that you are having.

So instead, you ask another question. One that has been bouncing around inside of your head since you first saw your Father up above you when you encountered Unit 01 for the first time. "Do you have any pictures of Mother that I could have a copy of. My uncle did not have any."

"Strange." Father's words are almost more a growl all of a sudden, the hairs on the back of your neck rising and you struggle not to take a step back. "Your uncle was sent multiple different images of your mother, to make sure that you did not forget what she looked like. For you to have not received them raises questions. Questions that I shall find the answers to. It will take time to make proper copies, but I shall make sure that you receive pictures of your mother."

That sudden surge of brutality was unlike anything that you have seen from Father before. There was something strange there, something dangerous. Like you were trapped in a room with an angry animal. At the same time, the fact that he is willing to do all of this…

It pokes a few holes in the terrible theory that you are developing.

So now it is time to bite the bullet. Time to ask the question that might prove what you fear once and for all.

"Father. Director. If you wanted me to Pilot Unit 01, why did you wait until the day that Sachiel attacked to bring me here?"

For a moment, Father doesn't answer. You aren't sure if he is refusing, or if he is planning his words. You can't see his eyes past his glaces, and his face is blank. Expressionless.

"Sachiel's attack was… not a part of the expected parameters of your arrival. Not at first. However, once Rei became injured during the testing of Unit Double Zeta, you were the closest Second Child that had a likelihood to be able to activate Unit 01. Had the worst happened and Sachiel managed to penetrate through to the Geofront, NERV had additional resources that would have made it possible to fight off the Angel, but the costs would have been catastrophic. Allowing you to see the dangers of the Angels first hand would make it such that you would choose to stand against them of your own will. And even so, you have managed to go above and beyond what was expected of you."

…

That… almost sounds like your father was expecting you to die against Sachiel. And just like that, the moment that thought forms in your head, all the other pieces click together. If you were expected to die against Sachiel, then it would make sense for you to be given a pamphlet that answered nothing.

A corpse doesn't need answers.

If you were expected to die against Sachiel, then that would explain why the expectations that your father is giving you are so strange. What does it matter is a school program is protected? Why bring that up in the first place?

If you were expected to die, then it would make sense for you to see the Angel with your own two eyes. That fear and terror would help you to fight it.

But you didn't die. Here you are, and now you have to figure out what that means going forwards. You nearly start to ask another question before your father sighs. "It seems that you have things to think about, daughter of mine. As your Director, and as your Father - You need to rest. Your injuries this evening were not a part of the expected outcome. We likely have time before Sachiel decides to return, and the sooner you have recovered, the sooner the people of Tokyo Novus will be safe."

"We shall speak of your accommodations in the morning."

---

Despite what your father said as he left, he does not meet with you to speak of where you are going to stay. Instead, Miss Ritsuko gives you a folded up note and a key. "Your father was called in to a meeting with NERV's backers in the UN. But he did want to make sure that you knew where you were going to be staying.

[ ][Home] District 23
- Apparently, there is an opening in the apartment across the hall from where Rei, the other NERV pilot here in Tokyo Novus is staying. So if you stay here, you'll have a better chance to get to know her.
[ ][Home] A solo Apartment Miss Misato's Apartment
- "Your father was planning on letting you stay at one of the apartments near the school, but Misato was worried about you living all on your own in a new city. Personally, I think that's an excuse, but I'm not sure what she's planning so stay on your toes."
[ ][Home] Your father's apartment
- "Gendo does have an apartment in Tokyo Novus, but I can't recall the last time that he left the Geofront. So the house is just being wasted right now. I pointed that out to your father, and he gave me the key to give to you. It's not that far from the school, but your father has made it very clear that he doesn't want you having any parties in his house."
[ ][Home] School Dorms
- It turns out the school that you applied to here in Tokyo Novus actually has a school dorm. Somehow, the system in charge of the school has realized that you don't have a place to stay, and so has registered you into one of the Dorms with a roommate... Her name is Peni?
[ ][Home] Staff Housing
- So there is actually a degree of staff housing here in NERV's HQ. It would add a bit to your daily commute to get to school, but it would keep your closer to both myself and your father. As well as the bridge technicians.