Huh...this is going to be just as awkward as everyone feared. 
Broken Wings [NGE]
- Thread starter Teen Spirit
- Start date
Timerider
That guy who really should get out more.
- Location
- The End of the World.
Well Asuka is being her usual charming self. Was Ria lying about her conception story? Because it sounded like Shinji and Asuka at least tried to make a relationship work. Personally I'm looking forward to someone showing Asuka exactly where her arrogance and lousy attitude got her. It would be so ironic for Ria to punch young Asuka in the face yelling about everything that she did wrong with her life. Possibly resulting in the following scene:
"You're grounded."
"Worth it. Besides, haven't you wanted to go back and hit yourself for being such a stupid brat."
"That's why you're grounded. You beat me to it."
Also I have this picture of older Asuka saying to her counterpart, "Shinji and I couldn't stay together because of our varied and numerous neurosis, but he was a magnificent lover." Cue young Asuka's mental breakdown.
I actually get the feeling that Future Asuka will be the most active in "fixing" their younger selves. Making them confront their fears and flaws, maybe even forcing them to visit a therapist. Older Shinji will likely be too scared of ruining himself even worse that younger Shinji already is (never mind that he would have to be deliberately evil to accomplish that) and restrain himself to minor advice such as, be nicer to Asuka, try to reach out more, and DON'T BLOW UP THE PLANET.
"You're grounded."
"Worth it. Besides, haven't you wanted to go back and hit yourself for being such a stupid brat."
"That's why you're grounded. You beat me to it."
Also I have this picture of older Asuka saying to her counterpart, "Shinji and I couldn't stay together because of our varied and numerous neurosis, but he was a magnificent lover." Cue young Asuka's mental breakdown.
I actually get the feeling that Future Asuka will be the most active in "fixing" their younger selves. Making them confront their fears and flaws, maybe even forcing them to visit a therapist. Older Shinji will likely be too scared of ruining himself even worse that younger Shinji already is (never mind that he would have to be deliberately evil to accomplish that) and restrain himself to minor advice such as, be nicer to Asuka, try to reach out more, and DON'T BLOW UP THE PLANET.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Yeah Ria was deliberately avoiding the truth with Asuka. She knows enough about what her mother was like at that age to know that telling her the truth would lead to a lot of yelling. It's three in the morning and Ria's had a shitty night, dealing with an irate Asuka is just something she would really rather avoid right now.
Last edited:
RexHeller
Title Incoming. Please Hold.
- Location
- Somewhere else.
So, just plain Asuka.
- Location
- Surrey
Younger Shinji: WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU OVER MY SELF-LOATHING! DID YOU SAY 'BLOW UP THE PLANET'?
Old Shinji: No! Don't do that!
Younger Shinji: 'DO THAT? OKAY!
Everyone: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
That's why they're keeping the kids away from windows - her head is still visible.
At first I thought you were joking, but then I realized, "Oh god, he might actually be right."
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Past!Rei did not come along with them and in the present Rei is officially considered missing.
I can only imagine the younger Pilots' reaction when the cat's out of the bag
A little nitpicking.
A little nitpicking.
That would be General Katsuragi. No guard should be able to call his superior by given name, even in the weirdest possible case of this particular guard being Misato's husband... which I kinda find less than probable.
@Teen Spirit, you forgot to threadmark Chapter 1.
Liking the story a lot so far!
Liking the story a lot so far!
Feeling a bit sorry for the past Rei, stuck alone in the other timeline.
Black Noise
Curious
- Location
- About 1AU from Sol
This has my attention.
Wonder how long it'll take the kids to notice who Ria was named after, and how long it'll take the adults to realize there's now 2 Yuis in this universe.
Wonder how long it'll take the kids to notice who Ria was named after, and how long it'll take the adults to realize there's now 2 Yuis in this universe.
Dirtnap
Kanmusu Affecionado
well...given that they (the other time line) were fighting Sahaquiel...
- Pronouns
- He/Him
For the record, this is what I picture Ria looks like, minus the ammo and hair dye and with blue eyes instead of grey.
That reminds me - how canonical is the name "Ria"? I've heard it used in a few fics. 
Chapter 2 Part 2
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Chapter 2.2
----
Ritsuko stared at Unit-01, looming above them like a monster out of some old movie. The sky was black and cloudless, no signs of dawn approaching anytime soon.
For the first time in many years, Ritsuko Akagi felt disquieted. She was staring at something that should not exist anymore. Not on this planet at least.
Unit-01 was currently drifting in space somewhere near Jupiter, Yui Ikari's bizarre monument to mankind.
Ritsuko scratched her head, briefly tracing the circular scar that marked her forehead. Her survival was a fluke of Third Impact, something Ritsuko was never quite sure what to make of.
Unit-01 and Unit-02 had most of Kyoto paralyzed. Their physical presence blocked several major streets, but the public reaction was proving to be the biggest issue.
Past the police barricades lay a sea of onlookers, most just staring at the Eva, taking pictures and gawking at the sight. A few, though more than Ritsuko would have guessed, were praying to it.
Cults of all stripes had appeared since Third Impact. More than a few worshiped Evas and even the Pilots as either aspects of god/Lilith or as gods themselves. Fools the lot of them, but they were popular fools. This event would only bolster their numbers.
Maya walked up next to her. "So where do we put them?"
"Good question," Ritsuko muttered.
She glanced over to see Maya fiddling with her wedding ring.
"Tomorrow is your third anniversary isn't it?" Ritsuko asked.
"Fourth," Maya corrected with a sigh. "I've already told her to cancel our plans."
"Satsuki's a good woman, she'll understand," Ristuko said in an attempt at sympathy.
Maya had appeared out Instrumentality six years ago, the last person of note from the old NERV to reform. A short time afterwards Maya worked up the courage to confess her true feelings to Ristuko. Feelings Ristuko felt stupid for not noticing earlier.
In another life, in another time, Ristuko might have pursued her. But by that point she was an old woman, burdened with regret for the crimes she'd committed, the sins she'd helped perform. She had no right to waste Maya's time and Ristuko told her as much. Thankfully Maya found someone else not long after.
Still, there was an awkwardness between them, one that would probably never fully go away.
"We need to get them out of public sight," Maya commented. "How hard would it be to get them into the Vault below HQ?"
"We'd have to rip up and completely redo the back entrance, along with a good portion of the Vault. That would take months."
There were things in the Vault there were just as big as the Evas, but they were never meant to be taken out.
"Building a new facility to take care of them would take even longer," Maya countered.
"We could just put them on ice," Ritsuko suggested. "Bethany base still has capability to do that."
"We wouldn't exactly be able to return them in functional condition if we do that."
"Assuming we can return them."
None of them even knew the mechanics of how the two arrived here. Replicating it was a pipe dream at this point. One Ritsuko didn't see much point in. Their arrival didn't utterly shatter time as they knew it, meaning they were likely from a separate universe. What happened to that universe was of little consequence here.
"True enough," Maya said. "We need to figure out how to move them off of the street before we can even think of returning them home."
/
All things considered, Shinji was taking the news well. Which is to say he wasn't screaming and crying. He was terrified sure, but as far as Asuka was concerned he had every right to be.
"Where's Rei?" he asked.
That was a question she had been hoping to avoid.
"We haven't seen Unit-00," Misato replied. "The event seems to have taken just you and Asuka."
"Not my Rei," Shinji insisted. "Your Rei. You've talked about the…about the other me but you haven't said anything about her. Where is she?"
"We don't know," Asuka lied. "She's been missing since the end of the Angel war. A lot of people have."
She hated lying to him, but she couldn't possibly consider telling the truth about what Rei was, what she became. He wouldn't be able to handle it.
"Why?!" Shinji shouted.
"We'll explain more in the debriefing."
The door opened. Ria poked her head in.
"So Asuka's here if you're ready for her," she said.
"Wait, why did you bring her here?" Asuka groaned. She was rather hoping to have Ria avoid her younger self for as much as possible, indeed she had been hoping to personally avoid her past self. Highly unlikely, but she could hope.
"Well...Shinji, the older one, and I ran into her in the café and-" Ria began, before the distinct sound of someone complaining in German interrupted her.
"Alright, alright, stop pushing." Ria opened the door.
In marched her younger self, her eyes full of arrogant pride. That is, until she saw her counterpart.
The two stared at each other. Asuka had seen her younger self at distance when she got out of the Eva, but she had stayed out of sight for the most part. Now seeing her teenage self up close and person, it was like looking at a living breathing example of who she had once been. It was surreal and unpleasant. Every regret she had of those years came rushing to surface of her thoughts, her brattiness, her missteps with Shinji, those damn nerve clips she was wearing in her hair.
The younger Asuka's face twisted with pain. She probably looked too much like their mother, making an already awkward situation just that much more uncomfortable.
Everyone in the room was staring at them.
"Well..." her younger self said, trying to regain her composure. "At least you're not fat."
Sadly, that was about the level of greeting she expected from her.
"Okay, not going to lie. This is a lot weirder than I thought it would be," Ria muttered.
The younger Asuka turned her attention to Shinji.
"Well at least you're finally up, idiot," she nagged. "You know how long we've been waiting for you?!"
"Yes, because clearly being knocked unconscious was his fault," Asuka snarked, earning a withering glare from her younger self.
"Anyways," the younger Asuka said, "I was told by your lovely daughter here that Misato might soon actually explain what the hell's going on."
"Wait, daughter?!" Shinji said in surprise.
The Sub-Commander grabbed her daughter by the shoulders. "Yes, Shinji, this is my daughter, Ria."
And his too but this was not the time and place for that.
"Hello again, Mr.Ikari," Ria said with an awkward wave. "Apologies for the lack of a proper introduction earlier."
"It's okay," Shinji said hesitantly. "Err, nice to meet you, again."
Ria nodded, causing the younger Asuka to sneer in disdain.
"I talked to the older Shinji," she explained. "He was..."
Ria lightly nudged the younger Asuka with her elbow.
"Errr, more mature than I expected," Asuka finished.
"Ookay…" Shinji said, puzzled.
"We should get the debriefing started." Misato said matter of factly. "There's a lot of ground we have to cover."
"Some of it is going to be hard to hear," Asuka warned.
They weren't, barring an unexpected miracle, going to be sending these two back to their time in the near future, for all anyone knew it was impossible. Which meant they would have to give them something of a normal life until then, maybe even have them go to school.
So they needed to tell them the truth of what happened between their last fight and now. Their struggles against the rest of the angels, SEELE, Third Impact, Instrumentality. But the tricky part lay in how much to tell them.
Misato once said there was there were three kinds of truth when it came to Third Impact; The public truth, the official truth which was known only to WILLE and parts of the government, and the actual truth, which was probably only known by Shinji.
It wasn't that Ikari had lied to Misato and her about what exactly happened with Lilith and Unit-01. It's just they never asked. As far as the world was concerned, Instrumentality was caused solely by SEELE, and Shinji had been the one to put a stop to it.
"It can't be that bad, right?" Shinji asked. "I mean we survived, humanity survived. We won, right?"
Oh you sweet child.
"We won, but the cost was high," Asuka said.
And the scars would mark the world forever.
"Whatever," her younger counterpart said dismissively. "Let's just get this over with."
"We'll provide you with some proper clothes and then Asuka and I will escort you to the conference room, We'll explain everything there." Misato explained.
She turned to Ria, who stared back at her with an exhausted expression.
"Do you need my help?" Ria asked wearily. "Or can I go home?"
"No to both unfortunately," Misato said. "I don't need you now, but I'm probably going to need you in a few hours. You can rest until then."
In truth she probably had little need of Ria, but the arrival of the Evas had made Kyoto unstable, particularly for someone with name like Soryu. WILLE was the safest place for her right now.
"Well you did warn me being an intern here would mean long hours," Ria said half-heartedly. "Well I guess I'll take a shower and catch a nap."
Ria walked out, giving a brief wave to Shinji and Asuka as she left.
/
The debriefing had not been what Shinji expected. For starters they'd spent the first hour just going over everything that had happened before their last fight. Everything from the First Angel attack to more minor stuff like when Misato had been promoted to Major. Like they were testing them.
It was just the four of them, in what looked like a small classroom more than anything, though far more advanced than any classroom Shinji remembered.
Finally Asuka got fed up. "I thought you were going to tell us what happened these past twenty years, not quiz us on trivia!"
"We need to make sure your knowledge of the past matches up with ours." Misato explained.
"Why?" Shinji questioned, they shared the same past after all.
"Because our future selves have no memory of this ever occurring," the younger Asuka said with dawning realization.
"Exactly," her older counterpart agreed. "Nothing like this occurred with that Angel. We killed it, it exploded, and we carried on. We're trying to make sure this is the only change between our two timelines, so what we explain to you isn't too confusing."
"So this isn't our future, more of an alternate universe?" Shinji asked, unsure if that made him feel better or worse about what was happening.
"We're not sure," Misato admitted. "As it stands, everything you've told us matches what we know. So let's begin."
Misato pressed a button on her desk and seven images appeared on the board behind her. Images of what he assumed were Angels they had yet to fight, with dates and various info displayed below them. Only something was wrong.
"That last one is a person," Shinji pointed out, referring to a picture of a grey haired boy dressed in what looked like his school uniform.
"And one of the others is just an ugly looking Eva," Asuka added.
"That one was an Angel that infected a newly arrived Eva," Misato explained. "The Pilot was maimed in the process. They're fine now."
"And that last one was an Angel," the older Asuka insisted. "But he was a rather unique situation from what I understand."
An Angel that looked human, now that was a truly terrifying thought.
"The point is you won, but there was heavy cost," Misato said reluctantly.
"By the time the last Angel died, Unit-00 had been destroyed, which Rei barely survived. Most of Tokyo-3 was in ruins and I was in a coma," the older Asuka said.
That last part hit the two pilots hard. Asuka in particular looked stunned.
"Then came Third Impact and Human instrumentality," Misato said, looking increasingly uncomfortable.
"Wait," Asuka spoke up, still troubled by what her counterpart had told her. "How could Third Impact happen if the Angels were all gone? How could we even be alive if it happened?"
"Simple," Misato said. "Third Impact wasn't caused by Angels, it was caused by humans."
The images of angels they had yet to fight vanished, and were replaced by one logo. A multi colored inverted triangle with seven eyes.
"Specifically it was caused by a group known as SEELE."
/
Asuka sat there, unsure of what to say, what to think even. What her other self and Misato had told her was almost impossible to believe. They had been deceived from the start. NERV was just being used by some insane old men trying to make themselves gods. Everything she, everything Shinji and even Rei had suffered through, it was all because of some goddamn idiots reading some ancient freaking scroll. The damaged they did was unimaginable. Frankly it was amazing society had recovered on any real level.
Instrumentality. The very thought of it made her ill, being stripped of any barrier between you and other people, sharing thoughts with billions of others. No privacy, barely any sense of self. It sounded horrid. Thankfully her future self was strong enough to pull herself out of it immediately. Still the thought that there were a few million people still trapped in that existence, staining the sea red. It made her skin crawl.
While Shinji was taking it poorly, he hadn't broken down, surprisingly. But he was rather distressed. She would yell at him but honestly, she didn't find herself angry at him. His friend Kensuke, his father, and apparently Wondergirl were all still trapped in Instrumentality.Sure he got the credit for saving humanity from SEELE but it sounded like she got the recognition she deserved, so Shinji wasn't claiming all the spotlight.
Besides her role during Third Impact sounded just as important as Shinji, and far more badass even if it didn't turn out so well. Taking on nine Mass Production Evas at once and winning the first round, even if she did taken out by a cheap shot in the end, Asuka had a newfound respect for her future self.
Still, it wasn't her glory. It was her other self's glory. As long as they were here they were going to be living in the shadow of what their other selves did.
"So we're pretty much stuck here unless you find a way to either time travel or travel to alternate dimensions," Asuka said, trying to push thoughts of Instrumentality out of her head.
"Yes," Misato admitted. "But to be fair, you being here proves that at least one of those things is physically possible."
That was admittedly a good point.
"So, any questions about the future?" her future self said, trying to take their minds off of Third Impact and SEELE. "Like what Hikari has been up to, how have computers changed, something light hearted?"
Asuka raised her hand. "I have one, who's Ria's father?"
Something about her didn't quite add up. She had her too soon to be a test tube baby, and she clearly wasn't a clone. Why would NERV clone anyone to begin with? If Kaji was her father, there's no way in hell Asuka would have let him go without a marriage, and there wasn't a wedding band on her future self's finger.
The older Asuka sighed. "Fair enough, it's not exactly a state secret."
Touji was married and Kensuke was not around so she didn't lower herself to that level, and there's no way it could be stupid…
"Shinji is her father."
Both Asuka and Shinji stared at her in shock.
That couldn't possibly be what she said. She must have misheard. There's no way she would...
"Shinji Ikari?" she repeated, dumbfounded.
Her older self nodded. "Yes, we dated for a few years after Third Impact."
She dated Shinji?! She had a kid with that stupid preverted idiot?! Was she that desperate for physical attention?
The older Asuka and Misato looked on has the young pilots struggled with a dozen conflicting feelings. Misato taking a couple of steps away from the pilots.
This couldn't have been her future, no she would never lower herself to that, she wouldn't...She couldn't.
Finally the emotional maelstrom raging inside Asuka burst forth with an angry scream of rage and embarrassment.
"Du verdammter Idiot!"
----
Ritsuko stared at Unit-01, looming above them like a monster out of some old movie. The sky was black and cloudless, no signs of dawn approaching anytime soon.
For the first time in many years, Ritsuko Akagi felt disquieted. She was staring at something that should not exist anymore. Not on this planet at least.
Unit-01 was currently drifting in space somewhere near Jupiter, Yui Ikari's bizarre monument to mankind.
Ritsuko scratched her head, briefly tracing the circular scar that marked her forehead. Her survival was a fluke of Third Impact, something Ritsuko was never quite sure what to make of.
Unit-01 and Unit-02 had most of Kyoto paralyzed. Their physical presence blocked several major streets, but the public reaction was proving to be the biggest issue.
Past the police barricades lay a sea of onlookers, most just staring at the Eva, taking pictures and gawking at the sight. A few, though more than Ritsuko would have guessed, were praying to it.
Cults of all stripes had appeared since Third Impact. More than a few worshiped Evas and even the Pilots as either aspects of god/Lilith or as gods themselves. Fools the lot of them, but they were popular fools. This event would only bolster their numbers.
Maya walked up next to her. "So where do we put them?"
"Good question," Ritsuko muttered.
She glanced over to see Maya fiddling with her wedding ring.
"Tomorrow is your third anniversary isn't it?" Ritsuko asked.
"Fourth," Maya corrected with a sigh. "I've already told her to cancel our plans."
"Satsuki's a good woman, she'll understand," Ristuko said in an attempt at sympathy.
Maya had appeared out Instrumentality six years ago, the last person of note from the old NERV to reform. A short time afterwards Maya worked up the courage to confess her true feelings to Ristuko. Feelings Ristuko felt stupid for not noticing earlier.
In another life, in another time, Ristuko might have pursued her. But by that point she was an old woman, burdened with regret for the crimes she'd committed, the sins she'd helped perform. She had no right to waste Maya's time and Ristuko told her as much. Thankfully Maya found someone else not long after.
Still, there was an awkwardness between them, one that would probably never fully go away.
"We need to get them out of public sight," Maya commented. "How hard would it be to get them into the Vault below HQ?"
"We'd have to rip up and completely redo the back entrance, along with a good portion of the Vault. That would take months."
There were things in the Vault there were just as big as the Evas, but they were never meant to be taken out.
"Building a new facility to take care of them would take even longer," Maya countered.
"We could just put them on ice," Ritsuko suggested. "Bethany base still has capability to do that."
"We wouldn't exactly be able to return them in functional condition if we do that."
"Assuming we can return them."
None of them even knew the mechanics of how the two arrived here. Replicating it was a pipe dream at this point. One Ritsuko didn't see much point in. Their arrival didn't utterly shatter time as they knew it, meaning they were likely from a separate universe. What happened to that universe was of little consequence here.
"True enough," Maya said. "We need to figure out how to move them off of the street before we can even think of returning them home."
/
All things considered, Shinji was taking the news well. Which is to say he wasn't screaming and crying. He was terrified sure, but as far as Asuka was concerned he had every right to be.
"Where's Rei?" he asked.
That was a question she had been hoping to avoid.
"We haven't seen Unit-00," Misato replied. "The event seems to have taken just you and Asuka."
"Not my Rei," Shinji insisted. "Your Rei. You've talked about the…about the other me but you haven't said anything about her. Where is she?"
"We don't know," Asuka lied. "She's been missing since the end of the Angel war. A lot of people have."
She hated lying to him, but she couldn't possibly consider telling the truth about what Rei was, what she became. He wouldn't be able to handle it.
"Why?!" Shinji shouted.
"We'll explain more in the debriefing."
The door opened. Ria poked her head in.
"So Asuka's here if you're ready for her," she said.
"Wait, why did you bring her here?" Asuka groaned. She was rather hoping to have Ria avoid her younger self for as much as possible, indeed she had been hoping to personally avoid her past self. Highly unlikely, but she could hope.
"Well...Shinji, the older one, and I ran into her in the café and-" Ria began, before the distinct sound of someone complaining in German interrupted her.
"Alright, alright, stop pushing." Ria opened the door.
In marched her younger self, her eyes full of arrogant pride. That is, until she saw her counterpart.
The two stared at each other. Asuka had seen her younger self at distance when she got out of the Eva, but she had stayed out of sight for the most part. Now seeing her teenage self up close and person, it was like looking at a living breathing example of who she had once been. It was surreal and unpleasant. Every regret she had of those years came rushing to surface of her thoughts, her brattiness, her missteps with Shinji, those damn nerve clips she was wearing in her hair.
The younger Asuka's face twisted with pain. She probably looked too much like their mother, making an already awkward situation just that much more uncomfortable.
Everyone in the room was staring at them.
"Well..." her younger self said, trying to regain her composure. "At least you're not fat."
Sadly, that was about the level of greeting she expected from her.
"Okay, not going to lie. This is a lot weirder than I thought it would be," Ria muttered.
The younger Asuka turned her attention to Shinji.
"Well at least you're finally up, idiot," she nagged. "You know how long we've been waiting for you?!"
"Yes, because clearly being knocked unconscious was his fault," Asuka snarked, earning a withering glare from her younger self.
"Anyways," the younger Asuka said, "I was told by your lovely daughter here that Misato might soon actually explain what the hell's going on."
"Wait, daughter?!" Shinji said in surprise.
The Sub-Commander grabbed her daughter by the shoulders. "Yes, Shinji, this is my daughter, Ria."
And his too but this was not the time and place for that.
"Hello again, Mr.Ikari," Ria said with an awkward wave. "Apologies for the lack of a proper introduction earlier."
"It's okay," Shinji said hesitantly. "Err, nice to meet you, again."
Ria nodded, causing the younger Asuka to sneer in disdain.
"I talked to the older Shinji," she explained. "He was..."
Ria lightly nudged the younger Asuka with her elbow.
"Errr, more mature than I expected," Asuka finished.
"Ookay…" Shinji said, puzzled.
"We should get the debriefing started." Misato said matter of factly. "There's a lot of ground we have to cover."
"Some of it is going to be hard to hear," Asuka warned.
They weren't, barring an unexpected miracle, going to be sending these two back to their time in the near future, for all anyone knew it was impossible. Which meant they would have to give them something of a normal life until then, maybe even have them go to school.
So they needed to tell them the truth of what happened between their last fight and now. Their struggles against the rest of the angels, SEELE, Third Impact, Instrumentality. But the tricky part lay in how much to tell them.
Misato once said there was there were three kinds of truth when it came to Third Impact; The public truth, the official truth which was known only to WILLE and parts of the government, and the actual truth, which was probably only known by Shinji.
It wasn't that Ikari had lied to Misato and her about what exactly happened with Lilith and Unit-01. It's just they never asked. As far as the world was concerned, Instrumentality was caused solely by SEELE, and Shinji had been the one to put a stop to it.
"It can't be that bad, right?" Shinji asked. "I mean we survived, humanity survived. We won, right?"
Oh you sweet child.
"We won, but the cost was high," Asuka said.
And the scars would mark the world forever.
"Whatever," her younger counterpart said dismissively. "Let's just get this over with."
"We'll provide you with some proper clothes and then Asuka and I will escort you to the conference room, We'll explain everything there." Misato explained.
She turned to Ria, who stared back at her with an exhausted expression.
"Do you need my help?" Ria asked wearily. "Or can I go home?"
"No to both unfortunately," Misato said. "I don't need you now, but I'm probably going to need you in a few hours. You can rest until then."
In truth she probably had little need of Ria, but the arrival of the Evas had made Kyoto unstable, particularly for someone with name like Soryu. WILLE was the safest place for her right now.
"Well you did warn me being an intern here would mean long hours," Ria said half-heartedly. "Well I guess I'll take a shower and catch a nap."
Ria walked out, giving a brief wave to Shinji and Asuka as she left.
/
The debriefing had not been what Shinji expected. For starters they'd spent the first hour just going over everything that had happened before their last fight. Everything from the First Angel attack to more minor stuff like when Misato had been promoted to Major. Like they were testing them.
It was just the four of them, in what looked like a small classroom more than anything, though far more advanced than any classroom Shinji remembered.
Finally Asuka got fed up. "I thought you were going to tell us what happened these past twenty years, not quiz us on trivia!"
"We need to make sure your knowledge of the past matches up with ours." Misato explained.
"Why?" Shinji questioned, they shared the same past after all.
"Because our future selves have no memory of this ever occurring," the younger Asuka said with dawning realization.
"Exactly," her older counterpart agreed. "Nothing like this occurred with that Angel. We killed it, it exploded, and we carried on. We're trying to make sure this is the only change between our two timelines, so what we explain to you isn't too confusing."
"So this isn't our future, more of an alternate universe?" Shinji asked, unsure if that made him feel better or worse about what was happening.
"We're not sure," Misato admitted. "As it stands, everything you've told us matches what we know. So let's begin."
Misato pressed a button on her desk and seven images appeared on the board behind her. Images of what he assumed were Angels they had yet to fight, with dates and various info displayed below them. Only something was wrong.
"That last one is a person," Shinji pointed out, referring to a picture of a grey haired boy dressed in what looked like his school uniform.
"And one of the others is just an ugly looking Eva," Asuka added.
"That one was an Angel that infected a newly arrived Eva," Misato explained. "The Pilot was maimed in the process. They're fine now."
"And that last one was an Angel," the older Asuka insisted. "But he was a rather unique situation from what I understand."
An Angel that looked human, now that was a truly terrifying thought.
"The point is you won, but there was heavy cost," Misato said reluctantly.
"By the time the last Angel died, Unit-00 had been destroyed, which Rei barely survived. Most of Tokyo-3 was in ruins and I was in a coma," the older Asuka said.
That last part hit the two pilots hard. Asuka in particular looked stunned.
"Then came Third Impact and Human instrumentality," Misato said, looking increasingly uncomfortable.
"Wait," Asuka spoke up, still troubled by what her counterpart had told her. "How could Third Impact happen if the Angels were all gone? How could we even be alive if it happened?"
"Simple," Misato said. "Third Impact wasn't caused by Angels, it was caused by humans."
The images of angels they had yet to fight vanished, and were replaced by one logo. A multi colored inverted triangle with seven eyes.
"Specifically it was caused by a group known as SEELE."
/
Asuka sat there, unsure of what to say, what to think even. What her other self and Misato had told her was almost impossible to believe. They had been deceived from the start. NERV was just being used by some insane old men trying to make themselves gods. Everything she, everything Shinji and even Rei had suffered through, it was all because of some goddamn idiots reading some ancient freaking scroll. The damaged they did was unimaginable. Frankly it was amazing society had recovered on any real level.
Instrumentality. The very thought of it made her ill, being stripped of any barrier between you and other people, sharing thoughts with billions of others. No privacy, barely any sense of self. It sounded horrid. Thankfully her future self was strong enough to pull herself out of it immediately. Still the thought that there were a few million people still trapped in that existence, staining the sea red. It made her skin crawl.
While Shinji was taking it poorly, he hadn't broken down, surprisingly. But he was rather distressed. She would yell at him but honestly, she didn't find herself angry at him. His friend Kensuke, his father, and apparently Wondergirl were all still trapped in Instrumentality.Sure he got the credit for saving humanity from SEELE but it sounded like she got the recognition she deserved, so Shinji wasn't claiming all the spotlight.
Besides her role during Third Impact sounded just as important as Shinji, and far more badass even if it didn't turn out so well. Taking on nine Mass Production Evas at once and winning the first round, even if she did taken out by a cheap shot in the end, Asuka had a newfound respect for her future self.
Still, it wasn't her glory. It was her other self's glory. As long as they were here they were going to be living in the shadow of what their other selves did.
"So we're pretty much stuck here unless you find a way to either time travel or travel to alternate dimensions," Asuka said, trying to push thoughts of Instrumentality out of her head.
"Yes," Misato admitted. "But to be fair, you being here proves that at least one of those things is physically possible."
That was admittedly a good point.
"So, any questions about the future?" her future self said, trying to take their minds off of Third Impact and SEELE. "Like what Hikari has been up to, how have computers changed, something light hearted?"
Asuka raised her hand. "I have one, who's Ria's father?"
Something about her didn't quite add up. She had her too soon to be a test tube baby, and she clearly wasn't a clone. Why would NERV clone anyone to begin with? If Kaji was her father, there's no way in hell Asuka would have let him go without a marriage, and there wasn't a wedding band on her future self's finger.
The older Asuka sighed. "Fair enough, it's not exactly a state secret."
Touji was married and Kensuke was not around so she didn't lower herself to that level, and there's no way it could be stupid…
"Shinji is her father."
Both Asuka and Shinji stared at her in shock.
That couldn't possibly be what she said. She must have misheard. There's no way she would...
"Shinji Ikari?" she repeated, dumbfounded.
Her older self nodded. "Yes, we dated for a few years after Third Impact."
She dated Shinji?! She had a kid with that stupid preverted idiot?! Was she that desperate for physical attention?
The older Asuka and Misato looked on has the young pilots struggled with a dozen conflicting feelings. Misato taking a couple of steps away from the pilots.
This couldn't have been her future, no she would never lower herself to that, she wouldn't...She couldn't.
Finally the emotional maelstrom raging inside Asuka burst forth with an angry scream of rage and embarrassment.
"Du verdammter Idiot!"
- Location
- National Capital Region, USA
Ouch. Nice touch. Even after Instrumentality, everyone who came out of it still has a huge burden of past sins. Some of them, like Ritsuko, have a new perspective on things, but she's still too weighted down with guilt to allow herself to take that shot at happiness. At least Maya found the ability to move on. Still a piquant note of tragedy.
It's been 20 years. All the Eva support gear is gone or way out of use. The easiest way to move the Evas is just to recharge them and let the Pilots move them, but do they even have the power umbilical equipment anymore?
Choosing to lie about this... that's a big one. One that will almost certainly have consequences later, one world or another.
Can't figure out how to be polite even to your 'self', Asuka? Then again, she's way out of her world and whether or not she even admits it to herself, Asuka has got to be very stressed, nervous, and a bit afraid about things, so it's not surprising she resorts to her usual stress tactic: bratty lashing out.
Older Asuka, OTOH, is far more self-aware and also knows all her own old tricks. Haha.
So they slipped over before Bardiel. That means this is pre-Kiss, too, so Asuka probably hasn't yet even to herself admitted she's attracted to Shinji. And they have yet to go through the major downswing traumas of their war, like crippling Touji or having to kill Kaworu. I wonder when/if they're going to tell Shinji Touji was the Fourth Child, and hurt because Shinji refused to fight, forcing Gendo to use the Dummy Plug.
Here we go...
Yup, even Asuka's internal monolog shied away from naming Shinji. Asuka had to have noticed the resemblance and the fact Ria was hanging out with him when she met them, but admitting to herself she's attracted to Shinji was still ahead. Plus, I think she avoided thinking he might be the dad because that would be a deeply serious thing.
Quadhelix
Professional Windmill Hunter
That's an interesting realization.
You know, it seems like she wasn't in denial here -- she was going through a list of people it couldn't have been and happened to be wrong about one of them.
Surprise!
- Location
- supernatural
So Kensuke is still in the sea of LCL. I wonder why he won't come out? And how Touji feels about that?
- Pronouns
- He/Him
This is roughly the state of the only Eva that WILLE had before this event occurred. While I'm certain the possibility of needing Unit-02 was raised a few times over the years, WILLE in general never expected to have to take care of a working Evangelion again.
So they don't have the cables anymore, admittedly rigging some up shouldn't be that hard.
- Location
- National Capital Region, USA
The MP Evas will appear. The battle will not be as canon is all I'll say. But let's focus on Broken Wings here. I'm guessing the description Misato & older Asuka gave skimmed lightly over exactly what the MP Evas were doing to Unit-02, or Asuka's response would have been a lot more.... Unhappy.
Neepa
Always pondering story possibilities
- Location
- Germany
Oh boy that reaction of Asuka was to be expected.
The smell of personal issues confrontation is in the air too...I like that like mustard gas in the morning.
Also: The only death good enough for the MP EVAs would be their S2Engines going critical resulting in a nice firework.
The smell of personal issues confrontation is in the air too...I like that like mustard gas in the morning.
Also: The only death good enough for the MP EVAs would be their S2Engines going critical resulting in a nice firework.