Neon Genesis Evangelion: Renewal
By BartonChrist
Disclaimer: Evangelion is the intellectual property of Gainax. This story is imagined after story by this author and is posted with no intent for profit.
Suspended in ageless twilight she drifted alone through the sea of orange. Taken by invisible waves and vortices, caressed by liquid neither warm nor cold which stretched out into eternity. She knew not how long she drifted here; there was no point of reference. Time had no meaning in this abyss of nothingness. Simultaneously at peace in solitude, yet forever perturbed by isolation. She was somewhere trapped between wakefulness and dreaming; a blur of quasi-reality. She could not die, but she was not living. Some might call this place limbo. Others would call it hell.
On occasion for reasons she did not understand she wrestled the shackles of perpetual abeyance. Form was given to the endless depths of the sea of tang. A surface through which she viewed the outside world manifested beyond her reach. Through the blur she saw pinpoints of star light, more than she could count, splattered against the dark cloak of space. Before her, the occasional gleam of red of the double prong which lazily spun silently in parallel with her through the vastness of the cosmos. The same scene over and over again. The same hopelessness which dragged her back into the sea of meta-consciousness.
Such time had passed that she no longer remembered why she was here. She knew the feeling of protecting someone important, a lover or perhaps a child. The specifics were lost to her, but she felt she bore the responsibility of countless others. Beings whose form she no longer recognized. She could hardly remember her own form. For a time she had worn clothes, but those had disappeared with the gradual mind-numbness of eternal entrapment. She drifted naked for a time longer, but eventually her body became unsubstantiated and eventually vanished as well. Only knowledge that she was different from her surroundings kept her from being absorbed into the tang. That she still recognized she was a 'she' at all, and the consequences of such a concept, was a miracle. Sometimes she wondered if she was supposed to release everything; to be one with this place. But she knew she could not. She had sacrificed everything. This was her existence now. Once she would have doubted anyone could consider this a way to continue existing.
Then in a moment everything changed. She felt them from a great distance, somewhere beyond the ocean in the great field of stars; so far away, and so long had it been that she could not comprehend what they were at first. But closer and closer they drew at the edge of her consciousness. Like an itch in her mind that grew in urgency until she could not ignore it anymore. It became clear to her. Others had come. The surface which had for so long eluded her rushed past, and in a sensation comparable to a drowning person's first full breath, she was free from the ocean. Orange ambiance faded into starry night. The red helix still floated in its eternal celestial dance. She reached out with her feelings, thrusting her will out into the void, scanning, searching for the source of the presence. There! It was within her field of vision, quickly becoming more visible. Dozens of massive yet sleek entities approached her at great speed. Their shapes and sizes varied, but their overall design was the same. They had long sleek hulls with spear point prows, and large thin protruding sections, some like oversized fins or tower which looked like tree stalks. All appeared to be propelled forward by massive translucent sails which rose out of the ships like wings, all protruding off different places on each ship, and all were different colours and designs.. These ships came across more like massive alien sea creatures than vessels; there was an inherent organic semblance in their design. She noted dome shaped terraces and a multitude of illuminated portals. The ships were a plethora of colours, some a metallic green-blue sheen and swirl designs, their prows golden. Others pure white with ivory coloured latticework designs playing across their hulls.
Vessels! Boundless possibilities raced through her head. She was waking up even more; memories she'd long thought forgotten came flooding back, threatening to draw her attention from the present. She bit back all thoughts but ones on the current situation. What were these beings? They were not familiar to her, yet no so different as to be alien, as difficult as that thought was to understand. Everything was happening too fast. If she could reach the helix- no, The Lance... wait, how come her arms won't move? Something was wrong. She was aware yet she had no control.
She noticed too late. As her mind raced in panic at her lack of bodily manipulation she hardly noticed the surface of the closest ship begin to shimmer until it was too late. Miniature, glimmering blue-white suns began forming in openings across the hull. Energy from the surrounding space was twisting and coalescing into radiant spheres. Then, faster than she was capable of following, the suns lanced at her, exploding upon her form with incredible force. There was light, and then nothing at all.
She was falling back into the sea. Good, she thought. She was tired. The events of the outside had drained her remaining energy. Her form was fading. She might no longer be capable of maintaining it. All the better. She was sick of this prison she had clung onto for so long. But just as she was ready to accept her oblivion, the sea began to shift. From the caressing currents she knew so well, the sea erupted into violence. The force of the vortex was unlike anything she had experienced in the peace which permeated her prison for so long. It was pulling her down. Deeper and deeper, she could not resist its pull. Try as she would, there was nothing left in her to fight. She could only accept oblivion.
Faster and faster she descended. She felt her speed was great, but the vastness of her surrounding was such that she seemed like she was not moving at all. The ambient orange which prevailed her prison was gone now, but she did not see the stars. There was only darkness in this place. Perhaps this dark prison is a more fitting end.
Then, like struck by the sonic wave of a thunder clap she felt it. The grip of fear was suddenly upon her again. She felt a presence, a being of power beyond imagining. She searched but she could not pin point where it was. The force was beyond her capability to quantify, and it was all around her. Potency beyond reckoning; whole yet diffused in her surroundings. She felt she was still sinking, and as she did slowly the darkness gave way to light. A new colour saturated the vastness around her. The infinite darkness which she sank through slowly turned to a deep red, a red she knew well. The colour of blood. Deeper still in the void of red ambiance, she spotted... something. Distance was impossible to judge in this place, but she could sense it was immense. Something that in the physical realm would dwarf the greatest stars and eclipse solar sytems. A sleeping god. A being of deific proportions crafted by the hand of man. She knew its name. She could never forget that word which was etched upon her very soul.
Evangelion.
The beast stirred. The void around her seemed to shudder. Its power washed over her like a vice grip. She knew something of the power it possessed. Many times she had worked through this monster, had helped free it of the shackles imposed upon it by man and put its power to work for her designs. This time was different though. The creature was stirring of its own accord. It was not a power she could not hope to resist even were she not utterly exhausted. There was little she had known when she had used its power which could stand against such an awesome might.
The sight of what happened next would haunt her darkest nightmares. The colossus uncurled from the fetal position it had laid dormant in for so long. It was proportionately sized as a human being. It wore no clothes and no armour. Naked. Nothing to hide the true form of this living deity. It needed none; it was beyond such needless accessories. It was perfection. Unlike the other Evangelions, Unit 01's genetic heritage was that of Lilith, not Adam. Because of this one might expect the Eva to be female, but like Lilith, it possessed no feminine qualities nor possessed any reproductive organs to speak of. The Eva was an apex organism; its genetic heritage the perfection of an ancestral alien race which seeded the stars with the likes of Adam and Lilith to spread life throughout the galaxy. It had no need to reproduce. It had no equal. Below the Eva's chest but above its abdominals was a large red sphere, one which glowed a deeper crimson than the surrounding space. The skin which covered its body was that of a tanned Caucasian, lightly bronzed orange flesh. It was completely hairless. There was no fat to speak of, and said skin was taught over enormous musculature. Its finger nails were long and hardened as claws. The Evangelions face had a bulbous forehead which morphed seamlessly over its center face. It had no nose. On its forehead was what appeared to be a white beaked mask with two black dot eyes nestled in it. There appeared to be no mouth, but there was no doubt this monster possessed teeth. They were hidden behind a perfectly seam closed mouth. Finally two eye slits peeled open.
It looked up at her – no– into her. Green eyes, so human-like, gazed upon her as a cat would eye a mouse. They narrowed as if in recognition, glaring with predatory intent. Its arms reached out as if to accept her in loving embrace, but its mouth opened widely. She was falling towards it. She could see beyond the jaws voraciously awaiting her. She saw... things! Beings without form, trapped inside the Evangelion. Some were once human, others, gods once themselves. All trapped in eternal torment inside the Eva. She could feel their pain. Their anguish cascaded across her flesh like fire.
She screamed as one who beheld the horrors of eternal damnation, but no sound came forth. She didn't want to die this way. She feared beyond belief, with all her being, the fate now thrust upon her. Then, moments before her certain peril, warmth washed over her from above. Warmth like a hot summer day standing beneath the suns radiance. She looked up and there, like a beacon from heaven, light shone down through the dark red which radiated throughout this place. She knew she had to give it everything she had. She reached up, and with all she could muster she seized for the light.
Hazy, incomprehensible images flashed before her as she faded in and out of consciousness. A bright tunnel of shimmering colour. The flash of white lights rushing by. People. She was floating. White light shone everywhere now. More people. The last thought before she faded into the merciful embrace of unconsciousness was the silhouette of a being – a human being! – who stood over her. She could see it was man. He speaking to her but she could not hear him. Then she saw them. So undemanding of her attention she didn't notice them before, but then they came sharply into focus. His ears. Not human.