Creation began on 01-21-18

Creation ended on 06-26-19

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Shinji of the Ring: Solitude

It was a long and agonizing night, but the end result was worth it. The journey from Tokyo-3 to this small town that wasn't welcoming, quiet and as dark as the streets were under the fluorescent streetlights that barely seeded the neighborhoods. Several gated homes with large yards blanketed the upper streets…and there was only one with a motorcycle lying against the sidewalk in front of it. This was the house that Shinji saw as his home, as it was the only place that felt most welcoming.

Reaching for the door, he pulled it open and staggered inside before closing it.

"I'm home," he uttered, locking the locks and going upstairs to his room.

-x-

"Yeah, he would likely go back there," said Ritsuko to Gendo, ascertaining the possible whereabouts of the Third Child in his office. "It's the only place he'd likely refer to as his home."

Gendo would have to send Section Two agents to the town his son resided in and bring the boy back.

"Sir, if I may, why should we go through so much trouble over someone that wants nothing to do with what we're doing here? He rejected what he was informed of and walked away just as the Angel arrived…and nearly killed a man that was about to kill him."

"It is imperative that he be brought back to pilot the Eva. I will use any means necessary to make him do as he's told."

"And should he continue to refuse…or does something completely unexpected?"

Gendo didn't answer her; he honestly had no worries about Shinji doing anything unexpected.

-x-

"…So, she died in her sleep, too?" A man asked in the shadows to a woman beside him.

"Yes," she answered him. "She's the third one to pass away this year. Nine years old…and she never knew why they did what they did to her."

"Too many of us are dying because of the sins of the people that turned us…and we're only able to slow the transition down by maybe a few days or weeks to even just a few short years. I can live without a future for myself, but to watch each of you go before you even get to live lives of your own is a weight on my conscience that will condemn me to Hell."

"On a lighter note, we found another child of similar trauma to the others we found over the years."

She slid over a file and he looked down at it, seeing the picture of the young boy that had a look of solemn grim to him.

"Shinji Ikari? How can we be sure about him?" He asked her. "His father ditched him when he was just a toddler."

"Because I was in Tokyo-3 when he showed up," she explained, "and I saw what the extent of what was done to him resulted in."

The man in the dark looked at her and wanted to know what she saw. The only answer she could give him was as odd as it was frightening: Light infused with anger.

-x-

Shinji awoke to find the sun out…and that he was back in his room.

Was it all a dream? He wondered, trying to wrap his head around a crazy dream he had about light and fire. A tower of light… A tower of water… Fiery rage… I can't remember anything after leaving that place after I hit that woman.

He got out of bed and went to the bathroom to shower; he might've lived alone, but he respected Hitomi's home to never retain any dirt he might've accumulated during the day. His chest and shoulders felt achy, like his skin had dried up completely and was cracking each time he moved. As he shed the ripped garments and got under the cascading hot water, he twitched from the discomfort it caused his nerves. Closing his eyes, he let the water wash over his back.

Slump! Something fell to his feet from off his back.

He opened his eyes and looked down, seeing a horrid sight. The wet skin that had been on him had washed off onto the shower floor, followed by other areas of his skin that were now wet. But the strangest thing was that he wasn't in any pain from this happening…and in place where the skin had fallen off his left arm…was new skin, covered in blood that was being washed away, but free of the tattoo-like markings that had been on the previous layer of skin. Instead of seeing muscle and nerve tissue as the blood washed away, Shinji saw the new skin was as clean as a newborn's, but not as frail.

For the first time in a long time, the boy was actually not upset about anything that had happened to him. If he was shedding his old skin like how a snake or some other reptile could shed theirs, he decided to let nature take its course and grabbed a part of old skin on his chest as hard as he could…and pulled it off; he didn't even feel pain from such an act, and let the handful drop to his feet.

"Let the water wash away all my sins," he sighed as he reached behind himself and grabbed another handful of his old, tattooed skin, ripping it away. "Ah, it's been too long since hot water felt relaxing."

-x-

"…Yeah, there's indication that he's in the house," a member of Section Two reported to Commander Ikari as he and three other members sat in a black Sedan across the street from the house that was listed as the Third Child's residence. "Hard to believe that a kid like this lives in this house by himself or that a woman actually left it to him."

"For now, just make sure you keep an eye on the boy," Gendo ordered them.

That seemed easier said than done, as they didn't know what this kid was capable of. After hearing about how he beat up several of the NERV personnel, including Captain Katsuragi, several of Section Two were skeptical of dealing with Shinji Ikari, not wanting to risk provoking him.

-x-

Bagging up his old skin that piled up in the bathtub instead of dissolving, Shinji felt revitalized and like a whole-new person as he came out of the bathroom and put the bag of his old skin in the garbage bin in the kitchen.

I wonder if this is what it means to feel like a new person, he wondered as he went to his room afterward. I actually feel like doing something instead of my usual routine. But what is there to do? I don't want to leave the house, I don't have to go shopping for anything, and I don't have anything scheduled for anything else.

He went over to a small bookcase on the right side of his room and looked at the small number of books that he never really looked at after getting them from a library that was just throwing them out. One such book was a small paperback with a title that read as Looking for Home, which suddenly appealed to his need to do something different. Picking up that book, he walked over to his desk and sat down to read its first page after reading what was written on the back of the book. Amazingly, once he started, he actually found that he was enjoying the plot of the story.

That library threw away something worth treasuring, he thought, already at the fifth chapter. I'd be looking for a home to call my own, too, if I couldn't stay here in a country that has people that would sooner condemn me than to leave me alone.

-x-

"…What's he doing so far?" Misato asked Ritsuko as they were watching on a monitor an infrared video of the Third Child inside his house in real time.

"He's in a small room, sitting at a desk," she answered her, "probably reading a book or magazine."

"I seriously don't believe we should bother with this kid. If he refuses again and we trouble him further, what are the chances that he snaps?"

"We can explain to him that as a paramilitary agency, we can violate his civil liberties."

"Yeah, and he'll probably kick our asses again. I think he wanted to kill me, you know."

"Why on Earth would he try to kill you?"

"Use your brain."

"We have a problem," one of the Section Two agents reported, as the monitor showed a thermal visual of the boy getting up and walking towards the back door of the house, holding a stick-like object in one of his hands. "He's vacating the premises."

"Where is he going?" Misato wondered, and the thermal video feed cut off.

"Hey, he's coming this way!" Another Section Two agent revealed over the radio. "Oh, God, that's a metal rod in his hands! What is he doing with a… Oh, no! No!"

The radio cut out, and Misato and Ritsuko looked at each other.

"You don't think that…" Misato tried to suggest, but couldn't.

"No, there's no way he'd know," Ritsuko explained. "It'd be impossible for him to realize that so suddenly. They were just monitoring him."

-x-

SMASH! Shinji, unable to hide his anger at the very prospect of being spied on by people, took his metal rod and bashed the sides and hood of the black Sedan with the Section Two agents inside, cowering from him.

"Aaaurgh!" He yelled, taking the rod and bashing the front window in. "Don't spy on me! Leave now! Leave! Don't come back!"

Then, hoping his warning message sank through, he returned back to his home, wanting to be left alone. Somehow, he just knew he was being watched by someone that had the means to violate his privacy. At first, he suspected it was his father, and hoped that he was right, just so that he could enforce his desire to be left alone after he left that horrid place. Looking at Hitomi's ring, he took comfort again in the memories he had of her accepting him as a person and not some outcast.

People need other people to survive, but people that purposely torture other people or abandon them or exploit them, they drive certain people to demand solitude. Only if they violate that desire to be left alone, that stirs up trouble. Father, you are trying to kick a hornet's nest that you have no business trying to kick…and you will get stung until it hurts to breathe.

To be continued…

A/N: There are too many things and not enough motivation to get through them, but in due time, they'll get worked on. Until further notice, this story will be put on hold until the motivation returns.