Creation began on 10-10-15

Creation ended on 10-11-15

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Potential Paradise

A/N: What would you do if you were offered a place that was a virtual paradise?

"Sir, I've gone over the last will and testaments of the ancestors of the eight families," went a young man to an elderly man that was writing his signatures on several papers, "and there's one that you should look into."

The elder looked up at the younger man.

"Go on," he instructed him.

The younger man handed him a document and expressed, "This is the last will and testament of the ancestress Senkensha Ikari."

"The woman people claimed could see into the future?"

"That very same woman. She had foreseen that she would be survived by descendant in need of a reprieve from the madness of the present-day world he would be in, and left what she had obtained over her life to him."

"Him?"

"A boy named Shinji Ikari."

"Okay. Where will we find him so he can be informed of his inheritance?"

"A place called Tokyo-3, Japan."

The elder then looked up at him again and realized that they would have to travel a long way to insure that this man received his inheritance. As he resumed his examination of the last will and testament, he discovered that this Shinji Ikari was Senkensha's great-great-great-great-great-grandson.

Yes, they would be in for quite a long trip.

"And she really left this to him?" He asked the young man.

"It was written in her will that he would inherit from her everything she had acquired in her life," he answered him.

"It's…quite a massive piece of property…and hasn't been inhabited for…almost a millennium."

"It's been perfectly preserved ever since she passed away."

"Very well, then. Let's go inform this young man that he just inherited something that people can only dream of having."

-x-

Sometimes, Shinji wished the classroom teacher would run his mouth about more than just what happened after the Second Impact. He had heard it more than once, and it was irritating to hear it again, even when he was trying to tune it out by looking out the window at the city beyond the school. It had been quite a while since the last Angel attack, and he was hoping he wouldn't have to face another Angel that was as destructive as the one that tried to detonate over the city.

Ding. He looked at his computer and found an instant message from Kensuke. It read, "You wanna head to the arcade with Toji and I after school?"

He typed back, "Sure."

Suddenly, the school alarms went off, ending the teacher's lecture.

"Attention, everyone," went a female voice over the loudspeakers. "Due to a city-wide state of emergency, we shall be ending all classes immediately. We ask that you gather your belongings and vacate in an orderly fashion."

The students then gathered their belongings and immediately vacated the classroom. Whatever the city-wide state of emergency was, it had saved them from the continued verbal torment of the teacher's Second Impact lecture.

But what caught Shinji's attention about this evacuation of the school was that he wasn't called on his cell phone from NERV about a potential Angel attack. If it was that, he would've received a call from someone at the Geo-Front.

-x-

"…What exactly is going on?" Misato asked the bridge in Central Dogma, as several of the monitoring equipment wasn't working as well as it should've been.

"We're not sure," went Hyuga to her. "We're picking up a strange signal that isn't local."

"Is it an Angel?" Ritsuko asked.

"No blue pattern has been detected," Maya revealed; the MAGI hadn't detected any indication that an Angel was present or approaching the city.

"One of the satellites is picking up something coming from beyond the moon," went Shigeru, and the holographic monitors all displayed the same thing, which seemed like something out of a movie. "What in the name of…"

Something massive was slowly approaching the planet from the darkness of space.

"Is that…some sort of satellite?" Fuyutsuki questioned.

"There isn't a satellite in existence that's that massive," expressed Ritsuko.

As the object came closer, more of its features became visible. It looked two large rings had been fused together around three smaller rings which seemed to center around a small sphere. The exterior of this object appeared to be mechanical, but there were certain areas that appeared to be organic. Size-wise, this thing was so massive that there was no doubt that the very Earth could fit right where the sphere was located.

Soon enough, the bridge crew saw something small approaching the planet. It looked like some sort of plane or shuttle.

"Aliens?" Hyuga asked.

-x-

People were worried. They could see something extremely massive in the sky, but due to the atmosphere of the planet, it was obscured.

As Shinji, Rei and Asuka headed to the Geo-Front, the Third Child was wondering if this was some sort of Angel attack strategy. If this was a new type of Angel, then it was greater than the last one they fought. He had to assume that there was no way that any of the Evas could handle something this extreme, even if they tried.

Within a minute, a strange ship appeared in the sky, hovering over the city skyscrapers.

-x-

"We're getting a message," one of the lesser female technicians informed the rest of Central Dogma. "It appears to be being picked up…everyone with the means to pick it up."

"You're saying everyone's picking this message?" Ritsuko asked.

"It's even showing up on my phone," said Maya, revealing her iPhone had picked up the same message. "Oh, my God."

Misato took out her phone and found the message to be quite a surprise.

"We apologize for whatever fear you're feeling from our presence. We seek the audience of one Shinji Ikari. Again, we apologize for whatever fear that you are feeling from our presence."

"Somebody's looking for the Third Child?" Shigeru questioned.

"Who would be looking for him?" Another male technician questioned.

-x-

"…Who the heck would be looking for you, stupid?" Asuka asked Shinji, as if he knew anything about this message that was appearing on their phones and on the monitors adorning the buildings in the city.

"It is unlikely that Ikari would know anything about the identity of this person or people that are looking for him," went Rei, using logic.

As they reached the Geo-Front, they met with Misato, Ritsuko, Fuyutsuki and Gendo on the bridge.

"Did you three get the same message that's been appearing on every monitor?" Misato asked them.

"Whoever they are, they're apologizing for the fear that they're causing just by being present," said Shinji to her. "Is someone really looking for me?"

"How many Shinji Ikaris are there in the world?" Asuka asked.

"Only one," went Rei, once again being logical.

"Who'd be looking for you?" Ritsuko wondered.

Suddenly, the message was added upon by a picture of the Third Child and more words.

"We seek an audience with this young man. It is imperative that we speak with him." The message read under his picture.

"That is one ugly photo of you, Third Child," Asuka expressed.

"Whoever these people are, they have you on the mind," added Ritsuko.

Shinji considered responding to this message, but then his father spoke up.

"We need to consider the possibility that these people, whoever they are, are a threat," Gendo uttered.

"Judging from the message, they don't seem to be a threat, Ikari," went Fuyutsuki, even though they were only being informed through a message.

Shinji, out of curiosity, texted on his phone, "Why do you want to see Shinji Ikari?"

"What do you think you're doing, stupid?!" Asuka yelled at him; she had seen him texting on his phone and sending a question to whoever was sending this message. "We don't even know who these people are, and you're sending them a message?!"

Before anyone could say anything about what Shinji had done, a response had been received.

"He is the sole beneficiary in his ancestress' last will and testament." The response message read.

"Say what?!" Asuka gasped.

Shinji found this to be quite a surprise. Someone from his family's past had left him something, which he found impossible, since he hadn't been around to be included in any will.

-x-

"We have his location, sir," went a man to another man aboard the ship that had towed the property towards the planet Earth. "Several meters underneath a spherical location under this Tokyo-3, Japan. Permission to establish holographic interaction."

"Permission granted," the other man responded.

-x-

Central Dogma's holographic equipment was suddenly hacked, and a man with blue hair and golden eyes appeared in front of the bridge crew.

"Shinji Ikari," he uttered, pointing towards the young man. "We have come a long way for you."

"Identify yourself," Gendo ordered the man.

He looked towards Gendo and responded, "Dove of the Ancestral Heritage Unit."

"Ancestral Heritage Unit?" Misato and Ritsuko questioned.

"We go over the last will and testaments of ancestral individuals of varying degrees of influence," this man, Dove, explained. "Shinji Ikari, by order of my superiors, I have been instructed to deliver to you the essential elements of your ancestress' will."

"Who is my ancestress?" Shinji asked him.

"Senkensha Ikari, who passed away over a millennium ago."

"I was never informed of her. I don't know her."

"It wouldn't be a surprise. She did pass away over a millennium ago. Still, she left everything she had obtained over her years to you and you alone."

-x-

After being given a specific instruction on where they could meet, Shinji went to the park…where he, and the security detail that followed him, met with the actual Dove of the AHU.

"My father and Misato almost wouldn't let me come here," he confessed to the man.

"I honestly can't imagine why. You're about to inherit everything your great-great-great-great-great-grandmother had ever obtained in her life."

"They suspect that you're some sort of threat, despite your apologies for exciting fear in people."

"If we were a threat, we would've did something that caused massive harm. But that isn't our job. Ours is to find those related to people associated to the last will and testaments of deceased ancestors."

The man then took out a device that resembled a hardback book made of metal and glass with an outline of a right hand atop of it.

"Please, place your right on the outline to begin transfer of inheritance, sir," Dove instructed him.

Shinji then raised his right hand up…and onto the outline. It glowed bright green and yellow, and Shinji had felt like he was pressing palms with someone else's hand. When the glowing ceased, Dove had him remove his hand.

"And with that, everything your ancestress owned is now your property," he told Shinji.

"I, uh… What did I inherit from her, exactly?" Shinji asked, curious.

"The primary portion of your inheritance includes her Bio-Tech Sphere Station, a self-sustaining space station of sorts created from a salvaged planet similar to this one, but on a larger scale. About eight times the size of this solar system's largest planet. Additional inheritances include a legion of androids that have kept the place in good condition, her elixir collection, and her dagger collection among other possessions. I would say that you hit the paradise jackpot, young man. I hope that you do enjoy your inheritance as you explore them. Also, enclosed is a holographic video message from your ancestress."

-x-

"You're kidding, right?" Ritsuko asked, just as Misato and Asuka and Fuyutsuki were trying to make sense of the fact that Shinji had inherited a colossal space station that made the Earth look like a marble in comparison because it had been, supposedly, created from an Earth-like world that was eight times the size of Jupiter.

"It seems like a dream, except it's too crazy to disbelieve," went Fuyutsuki, as he was examining several pictures taken by the satellites of the space station Shinji had just inherited from his ancestress, pondering just what sort of technology could be used to transform planets into space stations.

"Whoever this Senkensha Ikari was, she must've been crazy to leave him something as big as that," Asuka expressed her opinion; honestly, she was just jealous that Shinji had gotten something that seemed wasted on the likes of him.

"Whether she was crazy or not, she left it all to Shinji, who's the only person with a right to all that she had in her life," uttered Misato.

"Where is he now?" Fuyutsuki asked her.

"My apartment right now. He may be considering going to his new space station after being informed that it's a habitable environment."

"Could he consider leaving us to live there?" Ritsuko suggested.

"Commander Ikari may not allow him to," Fuyutsuki expressed.

"He is bound to have no say in what he can or can't do with his space station after being informed that it was left to his son."

-x-

"What is the meaning of this, Ikari?!" SEELE 01 asked Gendo during the meeting concerning the global message that was directed to find the Third Child in order to give him a n inheritance left to him by a long-deceased relative. "This wasn't mentioned, whatsoever, in the Dead Sea Scrolls!"

"This seems to have nothing to do with the Dead Sea Scrolls," Gendo tried to explain, but even he was confused by everything that had happened.

"Will this have any impact of the Third Child's reliability?" SEELE 10 questioned, which was what had many of the members of the council concerned.

"We're not sure at the moment," Gendo answered.

"If this space station is truly his, he has no reason to consider staying affiliated with NERV," went SEELE 04. "He may consider transferring to the space station…if it means to escape the conflict with the Angels. Such a place would be viewed as a haven away from the Angels."

"If he were to be convinced to permit people to be transported to it," added SEELE 08; if this station was habitable, it would be quite a reliable environment to thrive on.

"What of the Instrumentality Project? Will this…inheritance of the Third Child's interfere with the project in any way?" SEELE 01 questioned.

"It may not," Gendo suspected.

-x-

In his room in Misato's apartment, he was looking at the video message he was left by his ancestress that left him all that she had. Appearance-wise, Senkensha Ikari looked like a female version of an adult Shinji with silver eyes and her ebony hair in the form of dreadlocks and a ponytail, dressed in a red and gold yukata.

"Hello, Shinji, dearest," she had started. "I can only imagine that you're a confused, young man, wondering why I left you such a massive inheritance. Why you, of all people, should be the one in the family to inherit a space station I had made from a planet that isn't so different from the one you're on. But don't worry, you're not an alien's descendant or anything. I'm as human as you are. But I'll get to the point of this recording. I could see generations into the future of my descendants. And I saw you. You're never informed of things that are kept from you, you're deliberately placed in danger, forced to face enemies you don't truly understand. I don't want this sort of life for you, Shinji. So I left everything I had to you in the hopes you can escape this dark spot in your present-day life, even help the people of the Earth by giving them a taste of paradise. I know you'll be able to make the right choices and turn your life around if you're given a bit more independence from those around. My only regret is that I never got to meet you personally. I'm sure that you're a very gentle soul that hates the mere idea of harming another person. I know I do. I would keep a dagger on my person in the hopes that I would never have to use it. Should you ever have a girlfriend in your life, you should view such a belief as the same principle as what people refer to as protection, and that you should always have one and have no need for it than to need one and not have it. I hope to meet you one day…in another life."

The recording ended…and Shinji himself wished he had met her himself in life.

Still, much of what had transpired today was a lot to process right now. Most of which seemed like something out of a science fiction film. Advanced and ancient civilizations, people from forgotten points in history, and then, there were the Angels that, seemingly, threatened mankind. And his ancestress letting him know that he could possibly help people by using her space station.

It is bigger than the very planet itself, he thought, looking away from the small, tablet-like device that had contained his grandmother's holographic recordings…and at his NERV-issued cell phone, often the very phone that rarely rang with calls or messages from anyone that had anything that wasn't work-related to say to him.

-x-

A week had passed by, and the Earth found itself having to look at a constant eyesore in the sky because of the Bio-Tech Sphere Station. Along the global scientific community that developed an interest in it, some found themselves wanting to travel up to the place and study its functions, but were forced to remind themselves that some fourteen-year-old boy had been left the colossal construct by a dead woman. To do so would seem to require permission from the very child that now owned it.

Meanwhile, in Tokyo-3, Shinji now found himself having to hide in Misato's apartment due to reporters and paparazzi wanting to know just how it was that he came to own such an inheritance that even his father had no knowledge of.

Misato, sympathizing with the boy's avoidance of the people, had to disconnect the phones just to be able to sleep at night.

Asuka, on the other hand, wished that it was her that was being asked by the reporters about the Eva, which should've mattered more than some space station that people could live on.

In his room, Shinji had taken a risk and called Toji's phone.

"This is Toji Suzuhara," went the voice of the school jock on the other end of the call.

"Toji, it's Shinji," he greeted the jock.

"Hey, man, what's up?"

"I am not enjoying this unwanted attention."

"I honestly didn't expect you would be. Even Kensuke has had a hard time trying to get in touch with you. I just left the hospital to see my sister."

"How is she?"

"Still the same. The doctors keep saying she's making progress, but then something happens that causes her to get worse."

Shinji felt sorry for the jock's sister and her injuries that kept her in the hospital. If there was anything he could have done to help the little girl, he would've…

"Say, Toji," he spoke up, "would your family be interested in something nice?"

"Like what, exactly?"

"Living at a space station bigger than the planet."

-x-

"Satellite imagery shows that the place has buildings and other urban areas scattered around its surface," Ritsuko revealed to Gendo. "Forests, mountains, oceans, tundras, even animal life identical to the animal life here."

"Several of the personnel are beginning to question if anyone, including the Third Child, will be transferring there," Gendo expressed; he had yet to speak with Shinji about his inheritance, mostly about wanting to transfer it to NERV as research property. "Are we anywhere on the Dummy System?"

"We've been delayed due to the presence of the station just floating so close to the planet."

-x-

"…He asked if we'd be interested in living at his space station," Toji told his father the next day, having spoken about the idea to his sister.

"I still find it hard to believe that someone like this Ikari fellow was left a giant space station," Mr. Suzuhara told his only son. "Even so, why would he give such an offer? It's not like the Earth is dying."

"Maybe he just wants people to be happy. Maybe that place is like the one they showed in that American film, where it seems like everything is perfect…except for the governing authority. But Shinji would be the only person governing it. He'd be the one in charge, able to decide much of whatever he chooses, and maybe he feels it's his own way of atoning for his lack of skills against the first Angel that attacked the city when Sakura was injured."

"I thought he had gotten over that day."

"He's a complicated person…and a very sensitive guy."

-x-

It wasn't until two days later, when the reporters and paparazzi had stopped when they realized that Shinji wasn't going to divulge anything to the media, that said boy was finally able to return to school and go on about his business. Unfortunately, that didn't save him from the gossiping from the girls or the constant messages he got on his computer during the teacher's boring details about the Second Impact aftermath. The only person that hadn't been giving a hard time, excluding Toji and Kensuke, was Rei, who seemed indifferent to the mild madness.

As the bluenette continuously stared out the classroom window, Shinji recalled the girl's apartment…and how gloomy it seemed.

It couldn't hurt to ask her, he thought, deciding to talk to her at lunch.

To be continued…