Wandering Soul
Chapter 1: The Disappearance / Where Have You Been?
By: LD

Disclaimer: I do not, have never, nor will ever OWN Evangelion.

It was evening in Tokyo-3, and in the apartment of Misato Katsuragi two women waited for their other roommate. Misato herself was beginning to worry about her young ward, Shinji Ikari. It was getting very late and he had not called or been seen since he had left school. Asuka had been shopping with Hikari so she hadn't seen him since then. With the hour growing late Misato gave a call to Shinji's only two friends, Kensuke and Touji, only to find that they also hadn't seen him since then. This began to worry her even more, so she put a call into Nerv's Section 2 to find out his whereabouts. She was horrified to hear that on his way back from school, Shinji Ikari had simply and completely vanished.

"What do you mean he's disappeared? You're supposed to be watching him at all times and you let him disappear?" an irate Misato screeched into the phone.

"Ma'am, there was no way he could of evaded our surveillance teams. According to the team watching the Third Child, he turned the corner coming onto your street and then was no longer there. We have found no signs of a struggle, and the tracker in his cell phone doesn't seem to be working."

"Fine, I'm coming down to take charge of this. Has the commander been informed yet?"

"Yes ma'am, he has ordered a full search of Tokyo-3 for the Third Child."

Doesn't sound like the commander. I would of thought he would of just let Shinji die if he could. "Good, I expect a briefing on everything the moment I arrive."

"Misato, what's this about Shinji disappearing? Did he run off again, the little coward? Why does Nerv even bother keeping him around when I'm here?" Asuka said in her haughty manner.

"No he hasn't runaway again. Shinji seems to have vanished without a trace."

"WHAT?!?! How does someone just up and vanish? That's impossible! Section Two must be trying to cover their asses for losing him again."

"That's what Section 2 told me, I'm headed down there now to take charge. Stay here and call me if he calls or shows up."

With that Misato left the apartment, hoping that Shinji wasn't hurt, or even worse dead. Asuka was stunned, there was no way Shinji could of vanished without Section 2 seeing where he went. It just wasn't possible. "Shinji's gone? That idiot had to get himself into trouble. I wonder if he's alrigt… who cares if he's all right? He deserves anything that happened to him." Asuka refused to feel sorry for him, even if he was just a random victim of some psychotic murder. But deep down she was starting to worry horribly. She may not of been able to admit it, but Asuka Langley Soryu really liked Shinji Ikari… maybe even more then that. Her heart just couldn't beat down her pride long enough for her to even consider it. Every time she came close to expressing her feelings her pride would reassert itself and try to hurt him as badly as possible. Now it seemed very possible that he had been taken from her before either had even had a chance.

--

It had now been six months since Shinji's disappearance, and still nothing. No one had seen him after that day, never saw him leave Tokyo-3, and hadn't even seen him wandering the streets. He had completely and utterly vanished. Section two had spent three months going over ever inch of pavement reporting directly to Major Katsuragi. Misato was beginning to look worse for wear as worry and fear ate away at her each day. So far after interviewing hundreds of people, going door to door showing his picture, and searching the wooded terrain surrounding Tokyo-3 nothing had turned up to even indicate whether Shinji was alive or dead. After a particularly vicious verbal berating by Misato after she had made a remark about how they were wasting time even looking for him, and that they should just let him stay missing, Asuka actually tried to be supportive of Misato. The Second Child had finally been able to acknowledge her feelings for Shinji somewhat after months of searching. It hadn't come easy.

Misato made her way through Nerv, headed towards the office of the commander. She had a very bad feeling about what he wanted, and a suspicion of what he would tell her to do. She entered the cavernous office of Commander Gendo Ikari and reported to him. "Sir you wished to see me."

Ikari sat at his desk; his face obscured by his hands, and coldly stared at the major. "Yes, I have decided that we had wasted enough resources attempting to locate the Third Child. As of right now, he is no longer considered a part of Nerv and therefore his retrieval is not relevant. All activities to locate him will be stopped, that includes any private activities. If he returns, he will be isolated and prevented from interacting with anyone until I see fit. Dismissed."

Misato was pissed, but could do nothing. The commander had done what she had feared all along, cut Shinji off when he may be in the most need. But as much as she wanted to put a bullet in Ikari's head she held back. Asuka still needed her, and wasn't going to take the news well at all.

--

TEN YEARS LATER…

A young woman walked down the road towards her apartment building. She had long red hair that was held in by the same neural clip she had worn most of her life. Asuka Langley Soryu, age 24, walked home after a long day at Nerv. She had taken the position of her former guardian as the Tactical Operations Director, and had planned a night out drinking with her roommate and best friend Hikari Horaki, along with Hikari's boyfriend Touji, his friend Kensuke, and Commander Misato Katsuragi. Tonight she was planning to get especially trashed with her friends because of what day it was. Ten years to the day, Shinji Ikari had vanished without a trace. Tonight was a night to remember him and exchange hopes that he was still alive somewhere and would return to them one day. As she entered the apartment she heard someone in the kitchen. "Hikari must be working on dinner." As Asuka went to her room, she stopped by a small room with a sign on it. The sign said "Shinji's Lovely Suite", and had remained there in remembrance of the lost boy. She looked inside what had become a shrine to him, kept neat and clean of dust by her everyday for the last ten years. As she looked inside she saw something out of place, which was peculiar considering no one ever really went in there except to dust. A school bag was lying on the floor next to the desk, homework she hadn't seen in a long time spread out on it as if someone had been studying. This both puzzled and angered her; someone had violated what she considered a sacred place. But then something occurred to her, where did this bag, his bag, come from? She took a step towards the desk and looked at the papers. She wasn't sure about the assignment, but the date on the papers startled her. They all had March 15, 2015 on them; the day he had been taken from them.

"Misato is that you?" called out a voice Asuka hadn't heard in a long time , a voice she never thought she would hear again. She realized it was coming from the kitchen. "It can't be. That sounded just like him, just like he sounded ten years ago. Must be my imagination, there is no way even if he was back that he'd sound the same he did back then." With that Asuka went to the kitchen to grab a beer. She had taken on most of Misato's bad habits over the past decade, one of which was her drinking. She didn't drink as much as Misato or yell when she finished one, but she was working her way up to be an alcoholic. When she entered the kitchen she dropped her beer on the floor. Standing before her was Shinji Ikari, looking exactly as he had back in 2015. "Hello, do I know you?" asked the young boy. Asuka was just recovering from the shock of seeing him there.

She managed to stammer out "Shin…Shinji?"

To Be Continued …

Author's Notes: Once again I get a way out there idea. I'd like to thank Random1377, Ryan T. Nelson, and Matt Williams for their input. Ryan actually told me it paralleled an old movie called "Flight of the Navigator" Who knew? But after talking with him, going over different explanations for the event, we decided that this fic will take two different paths after the beginning. I'm working one angel and Ryan is working another. Should be fun. I'm also working on the rewrite of Trial part 1 and I'm making Progress on Possessed 5. I think you'll like it, and if you don't well too bad. Niehter rain, nor snow, nor heat of flames shall stop me from my stories. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Editing notes: Edited the chapter slightly to fix formatting issues.