Chapter Text
Shinji hated his father. Maybe at some point he wanted the man’s validation more than anything. But after what happened with unit 03 he couldn’t stomach it. Toji could have died. He could have died by his hands. The amount of guilt he felt was astronomical.
He sighed, it didn’t matter anymore. He would leave tomorrow anyway.
Shinji was about to close his eyes when a bright light flashed. Then he was gone. No trace. The only thing left behind were his headphones.
—
“Man that was rough,”
A girl with curly red hair wiped her forehead. She was typing rapidly on a touch screen keyboard. The vortex engine had malfunctioned because she had rushed. Again.
“Miss May, we have a problem,” said a computerized voice, “it seems that in our haste we have picked up an unwanted passager,”
“What?!” May stood up, “where?”
“He is currently wondering our storage area,” said the A.I
-
Shinji was confused. One moment he was in his bed and the next he was surrounded by boxes, in a sort of metal room. He glanced around. The boxes were labeled ‘SUPPLIES’.
Others were labeled ‘ENGINE’ and other weird space stuff. There were no windows to speak off. Was this related to NERV somehow? Had his Father sent someone while he slept?
“Hey stowaway,” a voice, greeted, “walk straight and make a right, the door should open for you,”
“Wait who are you?” Shinji yelled, “what’s going on?”
“I’ll explain when you get to the main deck,”
Shinji did as he was told. He exited into a hallway.
“Good, take a left and then the next right. There should be stairs. Go up and open the door. That will take you to the common area, from there open the big sliding doors there, can’t miss em,” the voice instructed.
Shinji did as he was told. When he opened the sliding door he was in a control room. A girl with curly red hair, hazel eyes and freckles greeted him. She wore a sort space suit thing. Next to her was a hologram of a man. It had not features though.
“Explain,” Shinji demanded.
The girl held up her hands then gestured to herself and the hologram, “calm down. I’m May this is Eniac. I sorta accidentally picked you up while traversing through time space,”
“What?” Shinji scowled, “is this some sort of prank my father put you up to?”
“Negative,” the hologram said, “we have no relation to your world or variations there of,”
“My world?” Shinji felt slight faint.
The girl nodded, not noticing Shinji’s discomfort she continued to babble, “yep, we travel the different worlds using a special engine-,”
“May, perhaps you should get him some water and have him sit down,” said the hologram.
May apologized, “sorry I get carried away with this stuff sometimes. Come with me,”
May yanks Shinji to the common area and sits him down. She then gets him a glass of water.
“Thanks,” muttered the boy.
“Sure,”
There was an awkward silence. None of them dared break it. Until Shinji asked a question minutes later.
“You said…world,” Shinji said, gripping his glass, “what did you mean by that?”
May beamed happy to explain, “There are…multiple universes and inside each universe there are a multiplicity of variations. We call it the multiverse. We were on our way back to our main hub from a mission and well I got impatient and decided on a shortcut. Which damaged my vortex engine somewhat. It caused us to jump through your world and transport you into our ship,”
“Is there a way to return?” Shinji asked, not because he wanted to go back, but because he was curious.
“Technically I could return you but it’s not recommended. I need to fix the engine first…” May said with a big exhale at the end.
“Ok…this may sound strange but…can I stay with you?” Said shinji
May, was dense. But even she could tell the boy was running from something. Something bad. He had that shadowy look in his eye.
“…is your world in the brink of destruction?” May asked.
“Yep,”
“Is it imminent?” May questioned.
“I don’t know,”
The A.I decided to interject.
“May I remind you, you cannot outright kidnap persons without a good reason. It could get you in trouble with the council,” said the artificial intelligence.
May shuddered. She did not want that.
“Right, so…you are going to have to tell us. Otherwise we have to return you after we fix the vortex engine. We only take persons whose universes are destroyed,”
Shinji didn’t want to speak of it. But if he didn’t he would be forced back there. Even if he had decided to never pilot an Eva again, he was still charged for misusing unit 01 after Toji.
Ugh. They were strangers though. He didn’t dare open his heart willingly to even Miss Misato. Still, he had to give them a reason to stay. He saw this as the perfect opportunity to disappear. What else did he have to lose?
“Well….” Shinji began.
At first he was composed and spoke dispassionately about his father and NERV. One thing led to another and slowly his emotional barriers began to crack. It helped that May and her AI friend didn’t say a word, letting him work it out. Once he started he could not stop. It was like a dam had burst and his insides were gushing out.
Shinji whispered, “I was going to be monitored and restricted anyway because of what I did…I wanted to destroy HQ, my father along with it,”
There was a long pause. As May digested all that she had heard. She felt tears prickle her eyes. She felt disgusted by the whole situation. And felt grateful that the council were reasonable enough to prevent children from participating in multiverse conflicts if they could help it. As a general rule there wasn’t many of those now a days.
May stood up, “Ok, you can stay,”
“It’s fine if you can’t -wait...you’re letting me stay?” Shinji blinked.
“Yeah, we’ll figure out the legal stuff later,”
—
Commander Gendo Ikari was not having a good morning. But honestly he never had a good morning since Yui was absorbed into Eva 01. Now though, it was particularly annoying. His son had seemingly vanished. He had Katsuragi search all of Tokyo 3 to no avail.
“What do you mean he isn’t anywhere?!” Gendo growled into his phone, “there must be some trace of him!”
“Sorry sir,” Said Misato, “but it’s almost like…he disappeared out of thin air, he left his things packed. We checked security footage and…we didn’t see him leave the apartment. To be honest we don’t know what we saw. There was a flash of light and he was gone,”
His morning was made worse by a familiar alarm.
“Damn! Get me unit 00 and unit 02!” Gendo snapped, “get the dummy plug for unit 01,”
-
The ship landed with little problem. Though the engine have a huffing sound during initial descent.
“We’re here!” May stretched her back, flinging her hands back.
“Where is here exactly?” Shinji asked.
“This is where some people who have lost their homes go. There are plenty of places like this in the multiverse. It’s like a waiting room,” May explained, “but some people decide to make this a permanent home,”
“A waiting room…for what?” Shinji wondered.
“For placement,” May said, “anway we should be going. Come on rookie, take care of the Ship Eniac!”
The A.I gave his nod of confirmation.
May skipped off. Shinji rolled his eyes, following after her.
-
The place was homier than Shinji expected. Houses lined the street and shops decorated the corners. Like a 1850s poster. The sky was dark with stars dotting the firmament. It was like the world was floating in space.
May led him to a shop. There were people and creatures of all kinds. Aliens that looked like octopi and shark humanoids and normal human looking people.
“Hey Cthulhu, could you maybe hook me up with a new circuit panel for a Vortex model x?” May greeted the owner.
It was a man with a squid face and squid limbs. He also had several eyes and greenish skin. Shinji thought he would go mad if he stared at cathulu’s gaze directly.
“May may, good to see you,” greeted the squid, “you wreck your engine again?”
“Yep,” May said, blushing, “oh and this is Shinji Ikari, we picked him up on the way,”
“Hello,” Shinji said.
“Nice to meet ya,” Cthulhu, “you gotta be careful with this one. She will get you in a world of trouble,”
“I see,” Shinji said.
“No fair,” May stuck her tongue out, “anyway, how long will it be for that panel?”
“Give it a day tops,” said the squid, “you may want to bring your ship for maintenance as well,”
“Guess we have to find a place to crash,” May said, she gave some gold to Cthulhu, “here’s the payment. Come on Shinji,”
They walked to the nearest inn. It wasn’t very elaborate. It looked like a small two story house. Like gingerbread houses people used to buy before second impact. It was rustic but not rundown at all. The door opened with a jingle.
“Welcome to Rosenbridge Inn,” said the woman behind the counter.
“Two rooms please,” May hand the woman some gold.
“How long will you stay?” The woman asked, opening a drawer.
“About a day or two,” May replied as the woman handed her two card keys.
“Enjoy your stay,”
May nodded and grabbed Shinji, pulling him toward a corner. “I’m going to call the council. It’s better if they know from me than someone else,”
May sent the call. The auto secretary told them they would receive a call later that night. When the fateful call arrived, both teens sat in May’s room with the holo caller on the floor. May explained her situation, to which she received glares and sighs of exasperation.
“And that’s how he got on my ship,” May explained, “he asked to stay which is why I called,”
“We will speak about your reckless navigation later then,” the group said.
The 12 holograms seemed to visibly exhale. They were hooded, their faces hidden. With the exception of one. A man with a red cape and a strange necklace with a green gem around his neck. He is the one who spoke.
“Young man, what’s your name?”
“Ikari, Shinji sir,” said the boy.
“Polite, how refreshing,” snarked the man, “in any case why do you not wish to return to your world?”
“Well…” Shinji looked at May, with a scowl, “Do I really have to say it again?”
May nodded, “Just tell them your Father’s a bastard, they won’t judge,”
Shinji bit his lip and spoke fast, “…I’ll try to make it short. My father abandoned me then calls me 10 years later to pilot a giant living robot and treats me like an insect at the bottom of his shoe. I almost killed my best friend because he used auto pilot because I refused to fight back,”
May gave Shinji a pat on the back, which made him flinch a bit.
The man took out a tablet, scrolling down a few, “Ah here it is…the Eva universe world number 0999,” He skimmed through the file, his brows furrowing with each sentence. He handed the file to each member of the council. And then they began to whisper. Shinji watched with bated breath for his fate to be decided.
“Well, Mr. Ikari,” said the unhooded man, “You are lucky. You may stay but-“
“Really?!” Shinji interrupted.
“BUT only until such a time we deem you worthy to return,”
“What!!?” May complained, “why?!”
“Miss Sanderson, please lower your voice,” snapped the man.
“Sorry Mr. Doc,” May flinched
“Mr. Strange,” corrected the man, “in any case, the reason for this decision is because Shinji here is an important point of interest in his universe. All versions of him are. He is…he can either save the world or destroy it. Without him there his world is fated for ruin. At least with him there it can be somewhat averted. It would be different if you had abducted him when the apocalypse was transpiring,”
“What do you mean ruin?” Shinji asked, dreading the answer.
“We will send a file for you to read momentarily,” Strange said, “in the meantime I will get a therapist for you,”
“Therapist!?” Shinji shrieked, “I don’t need a therapist!”
“And Tony Stark wasn’t a raving alcoholic with daddy issues but he was, so…” Strange sighed, “You do need therapy kid, end of story. After you’re in a better headspace you will return. That is our final verdict. Miss Sanderson, he may stay with you we will be sending a therapist to accompany you both shortly,”
The holo call ended.
“Well at least you get to stay, for a little while,” May tried to smile reassuringly.
Shinji sighed, “it’s better than nothing I guess…see you tomorrow,”
Shinji departed as fast as his legs could carry him.
“Here’s hoping they send someone sane…” May muttered.