Neon Defender Evangelion
by Sean Newton

Opening Credits: As per Episode One

Neon Defender Evangelion
Episode 0:2
A New Dawn

  The sun had barely risen above the horizon when the phone call
woke him from his sleep.  He grabbed at the phone beside his bed,
fuddling with it a bit before he managed to get it to his face. 
"Hello?"
  "Is this Shinji Ikari?" an unfamiliar female voice asked him.
  "Yes," he answered sleepily, wondering what the call was about.
  "My name's Misato Katsuragi.  I work with your father."
  Mention of his father shocked Shinji fully awake.  "My father?"
  "Yeah, he wants you to come here, to Tokyo-3," she told him. 
"I'm supposed to pick you up at the train station.  The train leaves
at eleven thirty and arrives here at noon."
  Shinji was dumbfounded.  His father wanted to see him again? 
After summarily sending him away eight years ago, his father
suddenly wanted to see him again?  He felt confused and uncertain. 
"Uh, okay," he told the woman at the other end of the phone.  He
could always run away if his father didn't want him there any
longer.  At fourteen, Shinji wasn't still a child, yet he was not yet a
man.  Being a teenager was like that.  "I'll see you later, then," he
told her, hanging up.
  
  The LCL fluid ran off of Rei's body as the warm water from the
shower hit her body, washing the only physical reminder of her
battle down the drain.  As she scrubbed, her mind flashed back to
the puzzling words Misato had spoke to her after the battle.  
  Her mind saw Misato standing there, waiting for her as she
climbed down from the entry plug.  "Good work, Rei.  And thank
you," Misato said to her.  Those were words of praise and
gratitude, Rei knew, but never had she heard such words directed at
her.  Why would she?  She existed but to pilot the Evangelion and
destroy Angels.  The Commander's discussions with Doctor Akagi
had made that quite clear.  If she did not pilot, why should she
exist?  But if that was true, why had Misato thanked her?  Why had
those people cheered when she'd walked her Evangelion back into
the hangar?  She didn't understand.  
  Rei turned off the shower and toweled off, then returned to the
changing room to finish putting herself back together.  It was time
to return home and sleep.

  The room was dark.  A table sat in the middle, with two chairs to
each side and one at each end.  Colored holographs, representations
of various Committee members, appeared in five of the six chairs. 
Gendo Ikari sat in the sixth, at the end, directly facing the
Chairman.
  "Commander Ikari, the Committee appreciates you joining us,"
one of the holographs told him.
  Gendo Ikari nodded.  "I am always happy to assist the
Committee," he assured them.
  "Yes, I'm sure you are," one of the other Committee members
said.
  "The first battle went well, Ikari," the Chairman said.  "Do not let
your vigilance fail, but remember your primary priority," he
reminded Gendo.
  "And how is the Human Instrumentality Project proceeding?" one
of the members demanded.
  "Everything is proceeding according to plan," Gendo assured
them, pushing his glasses back up into position.  He made a mental
note to have that problem taken care of; the slippage was becoming
rather tedious.
  The Chairman nodded.  "Excellent.  Then we shall take no more
of your time.  The rest of this meeting concerns only the
Committee."  The holographs of four of the Committee members
disappeared, leaving only the Chairman and Ikari.  "Do not fail us,
Ikari."   Then the Chairman's holograph disappeared as well, leaving
Gendo Ikari all alone in the dark.

  Misato groaned as Aoba Shigeru dropped yet another report onto
her desk.  The amount of paperwork that winning a battle required
was staggeringly enormous.  That gave rise to a rather amusing yet
disturbing thought: At least if they lost a battle, she wouldn't have
to fill out any paperwork!  She shook that thought off.  "What is
this one?" she asked him.  
  "Doctor Akagi said its the authorization form for recovering the
laser rifle Rei lost," Shigeru told her.
  "Fine, I'll sign it," Misato told him, reaching over a stack of forms
and signing it.  "There."  As she leaned back into her chair, she
caught sight of the time on her watch.  Ten minutes to noon.  She
was supposed to meet Shinji at the train station in ten minutes! 
"Hey, give this back to Ritsuko.  I've to go pick up Shinji."
  "The Commander's son?" Shigeru asked.
  Misato nodded, grabbing her purse and rushing towards the door. 
"He's supposed to get here at noon!"  With that, she was gone.  
  
  "Sir, I have my report for you," Sean Newton announced after the
Marine sentry had waved him into the Grand Admiral's office.
  "Your findings?" Gloval asked.
  Sean shook his head sadly.  "Nothing good, Admiral.  The
detection grids should have alerted the Space Fleet, but they didn't,
and we checked the logs of all the sensor satellites.  None of them
detected anything.  However, about thirty minutes before DesRon
Five detected the Angel, a signal was sent from Sensor Satellite
150E/0-23 to the NERV HQ downlink at Tokyo-3."
  Gloval frowned.  "Any explanation, other than the obvious?"
  "Hardly," Sean answered cynically, a wry smile on his face.  "Next
point: Frozen Fury has produced vague hints of, and mysterious
references to, something called the Human Instrumentality Project. 
Unfortunately, no hard data could be located on the existence of
such project, and short of invading the NERV computer systems, I
doubt we will found anything on computer that will help us."
  "Third point: Less than an hour after the conclusion of the battle
in Tokyo-3, there were extensive two-way communications
between NERV HQ and the UN, using non-standard encryption.  I
convinced Signals to get a copy of some of it by telling them we
were monitoring for any transmissions from the Angel, and Holly is
currently trying for a decrypt."
  "Last point: Save the Reflex cannon on the Macross, none of the
currently deployed Space Fleet weapon systems are capable of
penetrating an A.T. Field of the strength that the Angel displayed."
  "Professor Beckett confirmed that?" Gloval asked.
  Sean nodded.  "Yes, sir.  And he told me that the Type 6 Particle
Cannon could have penetrated.  You know, the main gun you
wanted to upgrade the cruisers to?  The one the Secretary General
said was too expensive?"  There was bitter irony and suspicion in
Sean's voice.  
  Normally, Gloval would have chewed out any officer who showed
such public disrespect towards the civilian leadership.  Under the
circumstances, it hardly seemed appropriate.  He hadn't wanted to
believe it, but it looked increasingly certain that the Secretary
General was in some way sabotaging the Planetary Defense Forces'
effort to defend the planet.  In time of war.  And that was treason. 
"Summary, please?"
  "Somebody's doing something wrong, and it looks like both parts
of NERV and the UN proper are involved," Sean concluded for
Gloval, not adding that the entire situation reminded him of a bad
fan-fiction plot.  He doubted that the Grand Admiral would have
appreciated that remark.
  Henry Gloval nodded, a look of sad agreement on his face.  "I
agree.  And that's what makes things even worse.  I don't know
who we can trust.  Your bosses I trust.  Admiral Hayes and
Marshal von Schwerdtner I trust.  A few others.  But who else do
we know about for sure?"  He sighed.  "Don't file the report.  Show
it to Burke and Kerensky, but file a less... controversial report in
the system.  And tell both of them I want to see them and you in my
office 0900 tomorrow to discuss where we go from here.  This...
matter needs to be dealt with."

  The train pulled to a stop in at the Tokyo-3 station.  The handful
of people on the train collected their belonging and shuffled out
onto the station platform.  Among them was a teenager named
Shinji Ikari.  Carrying only a small rucksack with a change of
clothes and some toiletries, he was traveling light.  His SDAT
player sat on his belt, the headphones sitting around his neck.  
  He looked around uncertainly.  He'd never met the woman who'd
called him, and he had no idea what she looked like, so he hoped
that she knew what he looked like.  Nobody approached him, so
after a moment, he took a seat on one of the benches, and waited. 
After several minutes, he put his headphones back on and started up
the SDAT player, tapping the controls until it came to his favorite,
Minmei's "It's You".  He hummed along softly, ignoring the fact
that he was all alone in a strange, unfamiliar city.  His mind began
to wander off, his thoughts drifting to the last time he'd seen his
father.
  Shinji had been six when his father had sent him away.  Gendo had
handed him a suitcase with clothes and toys, and told him to go
away.  He'd cried for days afterwards, lonely.  His mother was
gone, and his father had made him go away.  He was all alone.....
  The sudden shriek of brakes being applied pulled Shinji away from
his unpleasant reminisce.  The loud noise easily penetrated the
sound of the music, and he turned his head towards the source of it. 
A bright blue sports car was stopped on the road below the
platform.  As Shinji looked one, a woman stepped out.  Without his
even noticing it, Shinji's mouth fell open, his higher brain functions
temporarily out of service.
  "Shinji Ikari?" the woman called to him.
  It took several moments for her words to penetrate his
hormone-affected mind.  Finally, he stuttered out an answer.  "Are
you Miss Katsuragi?" he asked.
  "That's me," she told him, smiling cheerily.  "Sorry I'm late."
  "Er, uh, ah..."  Shinji stuttered again, unable to devise a suitable
response.
  Misato solved that problem herself.  "Come on, I'm supposed to
bring you down to Headquarters."  She waved him down towards
the car, and after a brief pause, Shinji finally began to walk down
the ramp to street level.

  The constant, persistent pounding of machinery from a nearby
construction site alerted Rei Ayanami to the fact that she was
nearing her apartment.  The walk from the GeoFront entrance to
her apartment was a long one.  The bus would have been more
practical, had she decided to wait the extra hours until the city was
reopened and the buses were running again.
  When she got to the door of the apartment, she took note of the
mail sticking out of the mail slot, but ignored it as always.  She
took out her key and unlocked the door.  Rei opened the door and
stepped inside.  It was dark, so she switched on a light.
  Rei Ayanami's apartment was not the epitome of cleanliness.  The
garbage can in the corner was filled to overflowing with trash,
while her sweat-stained linens lay strewn about the bed.  As always,
the distant but distinct sounds of the construction machinery
penetrated the apartment, shattering the silence that one would
otherwise expect to find in such a desolate place.
  She set her schoolbag down by her dresser, then removed her
clothes.   A moments search through the dresser drawers brought
forth a robe, and Rei wrapped herself in it, then retired to her bed. 
Sleep took her moments later.

  "Miss Katsuragi, are you taking me to see my father?" Shinji asked
after he'd been in the car for several minutes.  Up to that point, he'd
exchanged no words with her save for their initial meeting.
  "Please, just call me Misato!" she encouraged him.  "I guess I'm
taking you to see your father."  She didn't sound too certain,
though, and Shinji let the conversation fall away once more.
  He sighed softly.  After eight years without contact, his father had
sent for him, but the person he'd sent to get him wasn't even sure
she was bringing him to his father.  He stared silently out the
window of the car as Misato drove through the still-empty streets
of Tokyo-3.  The amount of debris was horrifying, and the
emptiness was weird.  "W-What happened here?" he finally asked.
  Misato tried to smile.  "Oh, nothing to worry about, just a minor
battle," she assured him.
  "B-battle?" Shinji stuttered, dumbfounded.  His father wanted him
to come to a warzone!  "And my father still wants to see me here?"
  "Yes," she told him.  "Now, hang on, we're going into the tunnel." 
The tunnel was dark, lit only by the rare overhead bulbs and the
headlights of Misato's car.  Perhaps the best word to describe it as
an experience would be to call it eerie. [No, not Eyrie.  They do
Neon Exodus Evangelion, not this fan-fiction. :-P ]
  Misato drove her car through a narrow opening at the end of the
tunnel, and as she pulled the car and stopped it, Shinji realized what
was going on.  The tunnel was the access to an underground car
train.  Moments later, his guesswork was borne out as the train
began to descend deeper into the Earth.  "Um, Misato, where are
we going?" he asked, uncertain.
  "Wait and you'll see," Misato told him, turning and giving him a
big smile.  
  He returned her smile with a tentative one of his own.  Seconds
later, he gasped in shock.  The dim light of the car train stall was
suddenly replaced by brilliant light from anothe rsource,
surrounding them from all around.  Shinji looked out in awe at what
lay outside.  "Is this a..... GeoFront?" he asked her.
  "Yes," Misato answered.

  Ritsuko watched the crane haul the arm of the dead Angel away
from the street, carefully placing it on a nearby flatbed truck.  The
recovery operations were proceeding on schedule.  Soon, the last
pieces would be taken away, removed from the public eye.  With
the remnants hidden safely down in NERV Headquarters, she could
work at her leisure on deciphering their secrets, without having to
worry about the prying eyes of an ignorant and suspicious
populace.
  She took a sip from her mug of coffee.  A third Angel corpse to
study and experiment upon, she thought, but they already had two
to work with.  Still, it was worth it to reassure the public, and keep
the unpleasant truth from them.  More important, in her opinion,
was that doing so would allay any potential concerns the Planetary
Defense Forces might have regarding NERV's conduct of the
battle.  Acting like NERV was liable to learn something new from it
would help to reassure the PDF.
  The truck with the laser-holed arm drove off, and the crane swung
around to pick up the last piece for removal.  It was the left leg, she
noted absently.  A loud siren-like noise sounded for several
seconds, then fell silent.  Ritsuko checked her watch.  Right on
schedule.  It was time for the buildings to rise.  The siren sounded
again, but as it fell silent this time, loud grinding noises could be
heard from all around.  The hatches were opening again.  As
Ritsuko looked on, a pair of nearby skyscrapers began to rise,
leaving behind the safety and protection of the GeoFront for the
bright light of the afternoon sun.     
  Ristuko took a last sip of the coffee, then retreated to her car for
the return trip to headquarters.  Soon, the people would be
returning to Tokyo-3.  When they did, they would find only some
scattered debris and damaged buildings to remind them of the
battle.  The dead Angel and any signs of the instruments of its
removal would be long gone.  The truck with the leg was already
driving back to the GeoFront access, and the crane was following.

  After nearly a half-hour of blindly following Misato through the
corridors of NERV Headquarters, Shinji was beginning to worry. 
As he stepped onto the escalator with her, he got the feeling that
he'd been there before.  He glanced around for several seconds
before he finally said something.  "I think we've already been here."
  Misato turned to him while the escalator continued its climb.  "Are
you sure?"
  "Yes.  We're lost, aren't we?"
  She frowned at him.  "No, we're not lost!  We're just taking the
scenic route."
  A voice from up ahead called to them.  "Lost again, Misato?"
  Misato twisted about to find Ritsuko Akagi descending on the
adjacent escalator.  "Hi, Ritsuko," she called back, waving
sheepishly at her friend and colleague. The rest of her reply came
through gritted teeth.  "Which way to the Operations Center?"
  "Make a left, then your second right," Ritsuko told her.  "Vice
Commander Fuyutsuki's waiting for you both."  She looked back
down at the papers in her hand and continued reading where she'd
left off.  Within a few seconds, she'd passed them by.  
  Shinji stared after her for a few seconds, but then they were at the
top of escalator.  "Come on, hurry up," he heard Misato call to him. 
Shinji mumbled words of assent and sped up to follow after her. 
After another half-minute's walk they arrived at a set of blast doors
marked 'Operations Center'.  Misato swiped a card through a
cardreader, and the doors slid open.
  "Ah, Captain Katsuragi," Fuyutsuki called as they entered the
massive room.  "And Shinji Ikari.  I am Kozo Fuyutsuki, Vice
Commander of NERV.  We are glad you've chosen to join us," the
aging man said.
  "I...  Thank you," Shinji said, slightly at a loss and finding thanks
to be the least worrisome response.  He wasn't really sure what he
was joining.  His father had sent for him, so he'd come here.  But
where was his father?  "Excuse me, but where is my father?"
  Fuyutsuki answered his question with as much dignity as could be
mustered.  "Commander Ikari is quite busy, unfortunately. 
However, I've taken care of everything."
  Misato watched the crestfallen look emerge upon Shinji's face as
his father's absence registered fully.  Save for his potential as a
pilot, the Commander seemed not to care one iota about his own
son.  Gendo Ikari seemed to have determined to make things as
emotionally trying for Shinji as was possible, and she felt sorry for
the boy.  
  "Lieutenant Ibuki, please take our new pilot on a tour," Fuyutsuki
instructed.  "I want him up to speed and ready for training
beginning tomorrow morning."
  "Yes, sir," Maya responded.  The young woman locked down her
console, then stood and approached the boy.  "Hi, I'm Maya Ibuki."
  "Shinji," he said.  "Shinji Ikari."
  "Follow me," she told him.  Nodding wordlessly, he followed her
back out of the Operations Center.  "There's a lot I have to show
you if you're going to be an Evangelion pilot."
  "E-Evangelion?  What's an Evangelion?  And how am I supposed
to pilot it?" Shinji asked, surprised.  He'd never heard of an
Evangelion, and they wanted him to pilot one....  whatever it was.  
  Maya gave him a cautious smile.  "I'll show you an Evangelion
right now," she promised him.  "This way."
  Shinji followed meekly after the young woman, silently sulking. 
Why am I even here? he wondered.  My father won't even greet me,
and now they want me to pilot something for them.  Why me? 
Aren't there enough people on the Earth who could do it instead?
  They passed through a pair of blast doors, and Shinji suddenly
stopped dead in his tracks.  The teenage boy stared up in awe at the
massive construct before him.  "Wha-what is that?" he asked.
  "That," Maya said, "is Evangelion Unit 01.  It's your unit."
  "Mine?  But- I can't pilot that!" Shinji protested.
  "Don't worry, that's what the training is for," Maya told him.
  "I don't want to pilot it," he insisted.  "I'm just a child, why do I
have to pilot it?" he demanded.
  "Because you are one of the few who can," his father told him.
  Shinji turned about suddenly to find his father, standing there
behind him.  "Father..."
  "You must pilot it.  Only a handful can do it, and you are one of
them.  You will pilot Unit 01," Gendo Ikari said.
  "Father....  Is that why you sent for me?  So I could pilot your
robot?" Shinji demanded angrily.
  "Of course," Gendo told him, turning his back and walking away. 
"I had use for you."
  Shinji stared after him, dead to the world.  Maya Ibuki looked on
in confusion.  "What was that all about?" she asked Shinji.
  "Nothing," he answered.  "Nothing at all," he said more softly,
silently resolving to show his father just how useful he could be. 
That'll show him!  I will force him to be proud of me!

  Another fifteen seconds and he'd be off-duty and headed for home. 
He could only hope there would be no interruptions, nothing to
delay him further.  He needed to get some serious rest.
  "Vice Commander Fuyutsuki."
  The words made Kozo turn to find his hunter.  He'd almost made
it out without getting caught by the staff.  Nothing to be done
about that now, of course.  "Yes, Captain Katsuragi?" he asked.
  "It's about Shinji," she said.
  "Yes?"  Of its own accord, his foot began tapping impatiently.
  Misato took that as a hint to hurry up.  "I wanted to offer to take
care of him.  So he doesn't have to live alone."
  Fuyutsuki nodded sharply.  "Fine.  File the paperwork, and I'll sign
it tomorrow.  Good night."  With that, he was gone, leaving Misato
standing alone in the corridor.

  "Shinji!"  
  The young teenager turned his head at the cry.  The cry had saved
him from having to listen to Maya list more dreary details about the
Evangelions and "Miss Katsuragi?"
  The wide smile on Misato's face turned into a slight frown.  "I told
you to call me Misato, didn't I?"  Her radiant smile returned. 
"Now, you're coming home with me!"
  "What?" Shinji asked, confused.
  "You're going to be living with me," she told him.  "And it's time
to go, so come on up here.  You can finish this tomorrow."
  "That's not necessary, Captain," Maya Ibuki interjected.  We were
just finishing up."
  Misato waved at the console tech.  "Thanks, Maya.  Let's go,
Shinji!"
  "Uh....  Okay."  Shinji walked up the stairs towards Misato.
  "I'll have to pick up some stuff so that we can celebrate the arrival
of my new roomate," Misato commented as she led Shinji away
from the Evangelion.
  
  The door to the apartment slid open and tallish man with graying
hair stepped inside, dropping a briefcase on the floor beside the
door.  He loosened his collar and collapsed onto the sofa.  For
Kozo Fuyutsuki, it had been a long, hard day.
  Seconds later, a sleek black and white creature jumped up onto his
chest.  "Ow, Penny, get down," he scolded the penguin, wishing,
not for the first time, that he'd never purchased the penguin.  His
life had been so empty, and when the special offer for UN personnel
had gone out, he'd jumped at the chance for a pet hot springs
penguin, like so many others.  Hot springs penguins were smart
birds, and they could even take care of their own hygienic and
dietary needs, a real plus for military personnel who might have to
leave their pets unattended for long periods of time.
  Kozo was glad he'd picked up Penny, though.  Just having her
around made the apartment seem so less empty.  If only she'd stop
getting into his papers all the time!  He reached over pet her a little,
then rose and went to the kitchen to fix some dinner for himself. 
He saw Penny grabbing a raw fish from the refrigerator and drop it
onto a plate.  "I wish you could take care of dinner for me, too,
Penny...."  Alas, the ability of the hot springs penguin to take care
of its own dietary requirements did not extend to taking care of
those of their owners.  For the lonely and tired NERV
second-in-command, that meant he'd have to cook for himself, like
always.

Closing Credits: As per Evangelion.

Neon Genesis Evangelion characters and story copyright by
GAINAX and ADV.
Robotech characters copyright by Harmony Gold.

This is a non-profit fan work intended for non-commercial distribution.