Creation began on 11-22-18

Creation ended on 11-24-18

Neon Genesis Evangelion

The Heart of a Titan: We carry on

About a day later, NERV received an intel report from Section Two, revealing that an unregistered van had pulled up to the residence of Major Katsuragi, releasing two occupants identified as the Third and Fourth Children.

"What did you say?!" Misato gasped on the bridge in Central Dogma, and ran out the room.

"Unregistered to NERV, perhaps, but likely registered to some other company," went Shigeru.

"Yeah, it's registered to some other company, alright," said Hyuga, who was checking the license plate number on the van. "It's registered to a sub-division of Japan Heavy Chemical Industries. But why would the pilots be with them?"

"That's something we must find out about," ordered Gendo, still angry about the incident from the previous day.

-x-

"It doesn't look like anyone's here," said Shinji to Toji as they stepped inside Misato's apartment. "So, what are you going to do when we go back to NERV?"

"Resign," Toji answered him. "Your old man was going to have me killed, and that's just crossing a line. That wasn't part of the deal I made with NERV to get my sister better medical care when they approached me with the proposition. Thanks again for saving my life."

"If I had to relive that day over again, I'd make the same choice. What's the point of saving the human race…if you can't protect the people that matter?"

Suddenly, the refrigerator that housed Pen-Pen opened up and the warm-water penguin came out, noticing the two friends.

"Hey, there, Pen-Pen," Shinji greeted him.

"Yarp," Pen-Pen responded.

The next thing the two noticed, about thirty minutes later, was that the front door opened and revealed Misato with her left arm in a cast and sling, accompanied by four Section Two agents.

"Shinji, Suzuhara," she uttered, seeing the two eating miso soup. "You're both okay."

"I take it that your injury is from the aftermath of the Angel incident?" Shinji asked, pointing to her injured arm.

"I thought you were kidnapped by someone," she told him, changing the subject back to him. "What happened to you?"

"Yes, I was kidnapped, but not because of anything NERV-related," he explained. "It's only that I had two relatives that wanted to see me, and then we found out about what happened with Unit-03 and what that man had authorized."

"Two relatives that wanted to see you?"

"Yeah, on his father's side of the family," Toji added in. "He's got an uncle and a cousin that work at Japan Heavy Chemical Industries."

"Then…this robot I've been hearing about that defeated the Angel and rescued the plug… That was you, Shinji?"

"One thing led to another in a series of unfortunate circumstances, but, yeah, it was me. My only concern was saving Toji. My father was just going to kill him with the Angel, even when there was a chance to save him."

This was something Misato wasn't informed about in its entirety. She knew the Eva had been compromised, but not that any attempt to force-eject the Entry Plug before engaging it with Units-00 and 02. At first, she wanted to assume that Shinji being kidnapped was part of an elaborate plan by someone to show that NERV wasn't as capable of dealing with the Angels as they were claimed to be, but then discovering that Japan Heavy Chemical Industries had likely built the robot that defeated the Angel didn't seem like a well-thought through plan, even for them. While their technology wasn't derived from the biology of the Angels, nobody there was likely to make strategies of the sort where a lot of risks were involved, including the sacrifice of an Evangelion pilot.

"What happened, exactly?" She asked Shinji.

"Before or after I was kidnapped?" He questioned.

"After," she explained.

"After I came to, I was introduced to my cousin, Mai Rokubungi, who introduced me to her father, Chikara Rokubungi, and they showed me the Titan Gundam they were helping to develop as another contingency plan against the Angels…"

-x-

"…So, it was built by Japan Heavy Chemical Industries…and piloted by the Third Child to save the Fourth Child after finding out that there was no rescue plan in the works," Fuyutsuki informed Gendo, who was informed by Misato as she told him that the three were on their way back to the base. "Ikari, you this could've ended badly either way, and that this is actually a boon instead of a situation."

In his office, Gendo was furious over the fact that it was his son piloting that robot instead of the Eva…and that whoever made him do so was making a fool out of NERV.

"The instant we find out who made him pilot that abomination, I'm going to…" He uttered, but Fuyutsuki cut him off.

"Nobody made him pilot the Titan Gundam, Ikari; he chose to pilot it to save his friend's life."

"That is irrelevant."

Suddenly, the door to his opened up and in came Major Katsuragi and the Third Child.

"Where is the Fourth Child?" Gendo asked Major Katsuragi.

"Undergoing a medical evaluation," she answered.

"Very well, then. It has come to our attention that you piloted a robot developed by a sub-division of Japan Heavy Chemical Industries. Do you deny this?"

"I do not," Shinji informed him.

"In effect, you went against NERV and jeopardized our operation by aiding an unaffiliated agency by operating an untested weapon."

"I was willing to risk my life to save a friend's life you were willing to throw away just to defeat one Angel. I was too far from NERV HQ to pilot Unit-01 and there was no rescue plan in force because of you. I asked your brother if the request to pilot the Titan Gundam was still open and I did what I did."

"You put countless human lives at risk, the whole world at risk…just to save a friend?"

"Yes, I did…and I'd do it again. But then again, I don't need your permission to do so."

Shinji then reached into his pants' left pocket, took out his NERV ID card and put it on his father's desk.

"What is this?" Gendo asked him.

"You can call it my resignation," Shinji told him. "I quit. I won't pilot the Eva, anymore."

"You're running away from your responsibilities again?"

"Whoever said I was running? I actually found a different line of work that's similar to this one, just more… Well, more reasonable and less dangerous."

Shinji then turned to walk away.

"You disappoint me," Gendo told him. "It's probably intended that we don't meet again."

Shinji stopped and turned around to face him.

"I'd rather pilot the Titan Gundam over the Eva, anyway," he told him.

When he left out the office, Gendo's phone rang and he picked it up.

"Yes?" He uttered, and then his glasses fell off onto the desk. "What?"

-x-

Although it wasn't an official test for it or the division in charge of its construction and maintenance, the Titan Gundam had caught the attention of the UN and how it was able to defeat an Evangelion that had been compromised due to an Angel. This by itself warranted the Japan Heavy Chemical Industries to have a second chance at being tasked with dealing with the Angels. And because it was being operated by a former employee of NERV that was doing so only to save a friend's life that had been put in jeopardy by said agency and Commander Ikari, it raised some controversy over whether or not they were working in tandem to deal with the Angel when it was confirmed the boy in question had later resigned in order to work at Japan Heavy Chemical Industries.

Later, after his medical evaluation confirmed that he was fine, Toji Suzuhara had also resigned from NERV out of contempt towards Commander Ikari's complete disregard towards his life, even if there was a chance of repairing Unit-03 after checking it for residual remnants of the Angel that had infected it; the fact that they were going to kill him before even considering the possibility that he was still alive but incapable of escaping from the compromised Eva had shown him that they weren't all that concerned for his personal safety.

"I hope that nobody else even considers piloting an Eva if you're just going to declare a trapped pilot dead," he had told Ritsuko before he left that day.

We've lost the Third and Fourth Children in one day, thought Ritsuko as she pondered over the use of the Dummy System, and we were showed up by Japan Heavy Chemical Industries after their failed Jet Alone project. We didn't even know about their Titan Project.

And, of course, Gendo, during the meeting with SEELE, got the worst of it regarding the incident and the loss of the two pilots.

"…Your arrogance over the disregarding of the Fourth Child's life and complete lack of increased surveillance over the other pilots makes us question your dependability, Ikari," SEELE 05 told him in the meeting.

"Unit-03 was compromised and we had no means to ascertain the status of the Fourth Child," Gendo tried to explain. "Because we couldn't risk the fate of mankind, I made the logical choice to declare the Fourth Child forfeit and focus on the eradication of the Angel."

"And we're to understand that this action is what led to the Third Child defecting from NERV?" SEELE 11 questioned. "It sounds more like you deliberately tried to damage the bonds the boy has with those few around him. Why didn't you use the Dummy System you were developing? It was intended to render the pilots obsolete because they're not reliable."

"The Dummy System wasn't complete at the time."

"That's just another one of your excuses, Ikari," SEELE 07 expressed over his response, "and look at what it might've cost us. Even if the Fourth Child had survived, you might've risked more than necessary by trying to force your own son to attack him. The next time you're suggested to do something that won't jeopardize our scenario, you're to listen and carry it out."

"And seeing that there is no ethical means available to convince the Third Child to return to NERV and pilot the Eva, we have to consider him lost," SEELE 01 announced. "Don't even try to force him to return. Make sure the Dummy System works before the next Angel arrives, Ikari. That is all."

When the holographic monoliths disappeared, Gendo was left fuming with rage towards his elder brother and niece that kidnapped his son just to see him. He chose to blame them over the fact that the Third Child wasn't here to face the infected Eva and bring him one step closer to his own goal, which may have been compromised now because he couldn't exploit the kid any further.

"Do you know what a man is called when they don't know how to treat those around him and push others away, Gendo?" Chikara once told him when they were younger. "They're lonely and miserable, which is what you'll be one day if you don't treat the people around you with respect. You can't just demand loyalty from those around you if you yourself aren't loyal to a fault. It'll take a miracle for anyone to want anything to do with you and your attitude."

Damn you, Chikara, he thought, imagining his son actually working under his brother. Damn you to Hell.

-x-

Epilogue

A whole year had gone by since that incident and Shinji's defection from NERV and joining Japan Heavy Chemical Industries as the pilot of the Titan Gundam. While he still kept in contact with Misato, Rei and Asuka above most others, there had yet to be another encounter with the Angels since Bardiel's appearance, which enabled both NERV and Japan Heavy Chemical Industries to improve their Evas and Titan Gundam, respectively. Or rather, Japan Heavy Chemical Industries had more time and resources to develop additional Gundams after the revealed footage of how their prototype defeated an Angel and expand upon the technology for its weapons.

NERV, on the other hand, had hit a speedbump in the development of their Dummy System when they tried to implement it with Unit-01, which went and rejected the system in its initial trial and all subsequent trials while it functioned with Unit-02 but couldn't work at all with the primitive Unit-00. The purple Eva even refused to sync with the First Child, revealing a temperamental attitude that the personnel didn't understand.

"In other news unrelated to NERV," went Ritsuko to Gendo one day, "Japan Heavy Chemical Industries has completed construction of their fifth Gundam and found a pilot for it from the Japanese military factions."

But Gendo could care less for that company; if he couldn't get Unit-01 to move without Shinji, who he was forbidden to manipulate back into the Eva, he was screwed.

Meanwhile, Shinji was just walking around the salvaged coastline of the original capital of Japan, which he'd been hearing from Chikara was really a marvel among cities because it was the biggest one to have ever existed before Second Impact. But in addition to the Titan Project, Japan Heavy Chemical Industries was among seven other companies that was trying to evaporate as much of the ocean water as possible to attempt to restore the planet to a pre-Second Impact state, something Shinji was actually hoping would pan out.

Ring-ring! His cell phone rang, and he answered it upon seeing it was his paternal uncle.

"Yes, Uncle Chikara?" He asked him.

"The JSSDF called me three minutes ago," he explained. "It looks like a new Angel has finally appeared after a whole year. We're deploying the Guardian Gundam and Sabre Gundam, but we'd probably be better if the Titan Gundam were deployed, as well. How far are you from the Gundam hangar?"

"I'm ten minutes away by the coastline."

"We'll be ready for you when you get here."

As he ran back to the hangar, Shinji, for the first time in a long time since he got drafted into the war with the Angels, was glad to be going up against another Angel because he wasn't piloting an Eva and wouldn't be subject to the synchronization defects that were nonexistent within the Titan Gundam. Whatever came his way, he was certain he would prevail in the end.

There are some things you simply can't fight, he thought as the hangar housing the Titan Gundam was within view, these random acts of a greater force at work that I can't call acts of the kami. If you see an Angel, a giant creature that is a foul mockery of these angelic beings that were messengers from a higher plain, you have to run for it. But when I piloted the Gundam to save the life of a friend, suddenly, I lost my fear of these giant monsters. Suddenly, you can fight back against the monsters…and you can win.

Fin

A/N: I guess it was the right call to end the story with Shinji being optimistic towards fighting the Angel because he put his faith in the Gundam, which, after a year, of course, could've been modified and made more efficient for combat against the Angels. Even if NERV had improved their Eva technology, I didn't want to give them much hope after the Bardiel incident. And when I think about what could happen in future of this story, I think back to the painting that was used as inspiration for the Titan Gundam, The Colossus, the giant in the background looking as though it is about to go up against a threat. Now, imagine the Titan Gundam in place of the giant and the threat it is going up against is an Angel. You put your faith in Titan Gundam. Peace.