You Can (Not) Forget

Different Worlds

"And he claims he does not know how his teleportation onto the Seraph's back occurred?"

"Yes, Commander," replied Ritsuko. She'd just finished briefing Gendo on the mystery that was his son. Ever since he returned from piloting Unit 01 on his first mission, the boy had been showing some inconsistencies. His personality had seemingly done a 180 from the time he entered his Eva to the time he left it, he displayed extraordinary abilities while in his Evangelion too. The boy simply said that he felt comfortable in his Eva and gave no further explanation. When they questioned him on his use of sound waves against Shamshel, he'd said he didn't know how he did it – they could tell he wasn't lying then, but when he was questioned on how he appeared on Gaghiel's back? They knew he was lying right away. Was he bad at lying? Not at all, but when they had him hooked up to the most state of the art lie detector without his knowledge, well...

If all that wasn't enough, there was one more inconsistency with the boy and this one set off more red flags than any of the others. Misato had told Shinji that she and Kaji were married hours before he'd gotten into his Eva to fight Sachiel, but she'd told Ritsuko after the defeat of Gaghiel that her marriage to Kaji had come up while they were aboard the Over the Rainbow and he'd reacted as if the news was the most shocking thing he'd ever heard. Something was severely off about Ikari Shinji and now they had to find out what.

"Watch the boy closely," said the commander, "and if he proves to be a threat – have him eliminated."

~X~

Shinji cooked his breakfast for the day with a sigh. He hadn't had a very good night's sleep. He and Leliel had been up the whole night talking. Was he tired? Yes. As if not getting any real sleep wasn't already bad enough the subject of their conversation had left him in a rather foul mood. He hadn't been back to school since the battle at sea; today would make day three. The first day was spent making it back to Tokyo-3 and yesterday was spent with testing at Nerv – testing and interrogation. They'd grilled him on everything they found suspicious about him, but he'd thought he'd done decently at removing some of their suspicions – he was wrong.

Not trusting his father at all, Shinji had Leliel eavesdrop on them after he was dismissed and that's what last night's discussion had been about. He learned that they'd had him hooked up to a lie detector and he'd never even known. Furthermore, he found out that he was supposed to have known about Misato's marriage already. He'd been too careless and now his father was prepared to – eliminate him – as he'd put it. Following his discoveries, he and Leliel discussed what sorts of actions they would need to take in the future to make sure no one discovered his angelic status. The only good part about talking to his kin last night was her explaining how his powers worked, not that it would be easy to pull off.

Yes, Ikari Shinji was in a foul mood this morning.

And it would only get worse from here.

His cell phone vibrated in his pocket. Assuming it was Misato, Shinji answered without thinking.

"Hello?"

"Hey there, cutie," replied Mari, sounding as if she was purring into the phone.

"... How – how did you get my number...?"

"A girl has her ways... especially when her aunt is so important in Nerv."

"I see," replied Shinji, frowning. As he laid his breakfast out on the table, he continued.

"So... what's up?"

"Misato told me to call you. Said it was important," replied Mari. Shinji immediately wondered why Misato couldn't have called him herself.