They arrive in small groups, some by themselves and none numbering larger than five. Acolytes, their faces concealed by the hoods of their robes, escort the groups in and then take position against what can be assumed to be the chamber's walls.
The darkness makes an accurate headcount impossible. Based on the apparent size of the room and the hushed whispers in the shadows, it could range from dozens to the hundreds.
They talk quietly to their newfound compatriots in a number of tongues, men and women from many walks of life trying to understand what has happened to them. Only a few have guessed the true identity of their abductors, but out of habit keep the information to themselves.
Some were not abducted thought. They have come here willingly, although they are wise to conceal it.
There is no way of telling how long this lasts. They have been stripped of their watches, as well as the rest of their personal items. So they wait, talking amongst themselves. How long does this last?
A few minutes?
A couple of hours?
The small trickle of people coming into the room finally abates, and as one the acolytes prostrate themselves.
Momentarily disorientated by this sudden action, they are even more thrown as a bright light illuminates the centre of the chamber. The men and women shield their eyes, trying to protect their retinas from the glare. After a while, their adjusted eyes make out the dark form in the middle of the bright light. A dark onyx Monolith, the words SEELE 01 etched in a bright blood red across its face.
They gaze up at the dark form, their hushed whispers stilled.
And then the Monolith speaks.
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REVISIONIST HISTORIES: NEO-SEELE
A Pax Evangelion stroty by Seph Khan (sephkhan@openaccess.com.au)
An NGEWorx Production
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My sons and daughters, I welcome you.
I truly wish that I could see you in person, but conducting meetings in the flesh has never been our way. This is especially true in such dark times. As such, only my monolith representation shall remain.
Some of you are no doubt still riled by the treatment you received from our acolytes. I assure you that it was... 'invasive' out of necessity. We had to know where your loyalties laid at all costs. We are after all the infiltrators, not the infiltrated. It was also to route out any of you who are loyal now but showed the slightest tendency of turning from our holy path if fate were to take a wrong turn.
It is best not to dwell on the fate of those who did not succeed in proving their trustworthiness...
Over half a century ago, we were masters of this world. Lurking in the shadows, pulling the strings of the world powers to fulfil our glorious Scenario. But that was then and this is now. The world would not look on us kindly if it knew we still existed.
What would happen if it were found that the CEO of one of Japan's largest industrial companies wanted to join more than just the executive golf country club? Lifetime imprisonment would be a blessing, I am sure.
And what would happen to a member of the faith if any good Catholic found them to be in conversation with the agents of Satan? Even if it were a Bishop himself?
Finally, imagine the scandal if one of the leading members of the European Reformist Party were found out to be a new member of our organisation? Why, the EU President would rip them to shreds with her bare hands!
The unfortunate individual should at least be thankful that her Evangelion was destroyed during the Battle of Tokyo-3. At least she can no longer step on them...
I'm sorry, but I have digressed. I do not seek to single anyone out. Your lives are all forfeit if your affiliation with us is discovered. And do not for a moment believe that you are no longer affiliated with us. You are all our sons and daughters now, bound together with ties thicker than genes and blood.
For we are SEELE, the unwanted saviours of humanity.
You no doubt know the lies that the governments of the world have spread about us. You were taught them in school and had them reinforced by the global media. If you don't know them all by rote I would be very surprised.
But in your hearts you knew them to be false, and for a number of reasons began to walk the treacherous path of knowledge and deliverance. A path that has ended here today.
This is true history. There are no lies and deceptions, only facts and the truth.
First, it is true that we caused Second Impact. The only thing that NERV, lead by the traitor Fuuyutski did not bother fabricating during the UN Trials and High Commissions.
But hear me oh children; it was by no means deliberate! Our intention was to slowly revert Adam to embryonic form so as to signal our kindred species, the Angels. To let them know that we as a species was ready, to grasp for the Fruit of Life as well.
Alas, it was the power mongering and scheming of our Judas, as well as the personal ineptitude of Dr Katsuragi that unhinged us. They allowed Adam to break free of his restraints, to release a large amount of energy upon the Antarctic icecap. What happened next I should not need to explain.
The loss of two and a half billion lives was truly regrettable, a great shade on our collective conscious. But our goal had been met: in fourteen years, the Trials would begin. And if we were successful, all the poor souls will have another chance. They will all live again, this time forever!
That was denied to us, but we can make it work once more. I will explain in time.
Secondly, we are portrayed as wanting to wipe the world of life. To destroy both physical existence and soul. I tell you now; this is a horrible lie, a deception to keep the masses of the world content in their ignorance, the petty forms that evolution has forced upon them! Former members of our brotherhood were tortured and coerced into falsely admitting as such during the great purges of 2016. These tortured turncoats merely gave the world what it wanted to hear, reading out the scripts that NERV gave them to read.
However, none of the old-SEELE council members would be so compliant. I do not wish to dwell on what sought of torture they were put through, trying to get them to confess to imaginary crimes in the UN sanctioned kangaroo court. But none would give in, remaining paragons to our righteous cause right to the bitter end.
They broadcasted the execution of Keel Lorenz live on television. Truly a dark day for a then young acolyte such as myself. I only saw it once, but will never forget. It as if each frame is burned into my mind, even to this day. The brutish prison guards, smirks plastered on their broad, flat faces as the dragged the frail old man down the corridor to the gassing chamber. Body failing him, his time on this Earth measured in minutes yet head still held up high.
I freely admit that I cried that day. Long after the live feed had ceased and the mundane events of the world news flooded my small screen, I was still crying for the brave martyr to our cause.
He did not wish to destroy humanity. He wanted to save it. And this was his reward?
However, if we succeed, he to will live again. One with all of us.
I will now move onto the crux of the matter, the reasons why we existed in the first place. Let me speak to you of our greatest hope and failure, both realised in just less than twenty-four hours. It was January the twenty sixth, Anno Domini Two Thousand and Sixteen: The day of the aborted Third Impact.
We tried to enter their MAGI, to force a non-violent end to their siege. But our Judas was able to thwart us, through the aid of the Akagi woman and her 666 Firewall. Once again displaying his true nature, when she had performed her function he killed in her cold blood. The same as what he did to her mother and his very own wife... We had no choice but to alert the Japanese Government of Judas' true plans.
And so we sent in soldiers to do our bidding. In these later, darker days, the Battle of Tokyo-3 is portrayed as a heroic resistance on the part of NERV, trying to defend itself against a stronger, more ruthless and bloodthirsty foe. But it was our troops who were doing all the defending. Defending the immortal souls of all mankind from the nefarious schemes of a madman who hadn't gotten his way...
That's right, a madman. Our Judas was no tragic hero, a romantic who gave all for the love of his family. He was not out to save the world. He was a traitor! Not just to us, but to mankind itself!
The greatest mistake we have ever made was to allow him to remain in command. The signs of his treason were right in the old committee's faces, yet they still did nothing. In the end, his accumulated power was strong enough to destroy even our Scenario. All through his tools, the cloned abomination and his snivelling brat!
Oh, if only we had relieved him and his confidant Fuuyutski from Command! He should never have been allowed to use his own son to pilot Lillith's clone. It was a blatant push for control over one of NERV's key assets, yet we didn't blink an eye.
The problem of the old and now long dead committee was that they believed he could be controlled at the time. That his manoeuvring would come to nothing at the end...
Oh, how wrong they were!
The Battle for Tokyo-3 had been bloody, but victory was in our hands. However, it was not of the best circumstances. If it had been, the pilot of Unit 01 would not have been able to resist our holy righteousness. All our chess-pieces were in place. The Lance, our Eva series and Lillith's clone.
Instrumentality through Third Impact...
For a few hours humans knew Heaven. We had saved humanity from itself! We could have all lived forever, outlasting the Earth, the Sun, even the Galaxy!
...Yet it was not meant to last. In the months leading up to that fateful day, the old committee knew that Ikari would be their worst enemy. The problem was that they picked the wrong one.
You know who he is: The hero of the 2015 Angel-War, the one who controls both Lillith and Adam. Known by the title bestowed by the adoring masses, much to his dismay. The 'Angel-Slayer'.
He destroyed mega-Lillith from within, ripped her apart to satisfy his own delusions of inadequacy as well as lust for power and privacy. Returning us all to an Earth rebuilt in his image, forcing all of us to resume our forms! Shinji Ikari denied eternity from all of us!
Oh sons and daughters, his mere name is all that is needed to brings bile to the tip of my tongue! All the books, documentary's and movies are wrong. He is not the abandoned loveless schoolboy who fought for Earth in its darkest hour. He is not the Saviour, but the Antichrist! The sheer enormity of the crime he committed is still astounding, even after all these years!
Why can't people see? The two Ikari's were working together all along. The lack of love and understanding for each other was a facade, a mask for their true intentions! Judas came up with the plan and the Angel-Slayer carried it out, as he was trained no, born to do!
But it does not pay for us to dwell on the past, not when the future is ours. I will move on.
We would see him dead if we could. But with the power of Lillith and Adam at his disposal, he is not a force to be stood against. He would not even need the long lost Unit 01 to defeat any conventional forces we could throw at him.
After the Angel Slayer rebuilt the world and dragged us all back from Nirvana, once loyal governments turned us into the hand of NERV and the UN. Those of us who survived the great purges had to go underground, even deeper into the shadows than before. Many lost faith and turned their backs on us... Out of all the traitors and deserters, only a few such as myself still believed. I was a young man at the time, but the highest-ranking operative still free and faithful.
It has taken us many years, but we are slowly rising again. The world believes us to consigned to the ash heap of history, along with the Nazis, the Soviets and the US Military Junta. But the day will come when we will have regained our power, and we will not be trifled with again.
We lost the battle, but the war will go on as long as we as a species continue to exist in this form. But why do we as an organisation still exist? The answer is simple. Look in the world around you.
What do you see? Wars in South and Central America. Terror abounds in the Middle East and Ireland. People dropping like flies due to famines throughout Africa and China. It is just like the barbarism of the 20th Century all over again!
Also note the proliferation of biological, nuclear and N2 weaponry amongst rogue states and terrorist organisations. It is only a matter of time till we kill ourselves, a whole species committing suicide, going out with a bang.
We seem unable to learn from our mistakes. Over two million years of progress, human nature still has not changed.
Like all living things that crept and crawled out of the primordial ooze following the Great Impact, we face only one certainty. The time we have in this word may vary, but in the end all life forms must face what lies beyond. Faced with this resolute boundary, the human condition remains a constant of pain and suffering leading up to the end.
And look more closely, not to the world but the people around you. Loneliness. We can't relate to our fellow Man. Within each one of us there lies an emptiness. A part that is blocked of from the world around us. Because of this, we will remain always alone, always isolated.
Instrumentality is designed to fill that gap. To break the cycle of death and rebirth.
The ruthless application of the Fuuyutski Doctrines has been more than successful in keeping Evangelion based technology out of the hands of people such as ourselves. Even if we had the knowledge, we do not have the power base to enact our Scenario.
So it won't be today. And it won't be tomorrow. But someday down the line, the UN will falter, and the means to satisfy our goals will be ours. And when 'Pax Evangelion' falls, we will have the strength to do what is needed.
Not even the Angel Slayer will be able to stop us then.
It is up to us. Only we have the will and the drive to save humanity from itself.
Life leads to death. But if we act with deftness of purpose, we can make our deaths gives birth to life
Is ours not a worthwhile cause?
That is all, my sons and daughters. All will be One. Go in peace.
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The light dims, and the Monolith is gone.
They have been unknowingly monitored throughout the sermon by a variety of devices, reading brain patterns, heart rates and eye movement. Their reactions have varied, from disbelief to jubilance, fear to outrage.
One by one they take their leave from the chamber. An acolyte escorts each to their varying fates.
Some are taken back to their homes and places of business from where they came and given their commands. Some of the more susceptible are taken straight to SEELE chapters throughout the continent for the beginning of their indoctrination.
A sizeable, although not heavily significant number who did not prove as receptive as their fellows are eliminated, freed of their corporal form not through Instrumentality but through a bullet to the back of the head.
It is of no consequence to the acolytes, the fates of the people who have been dealt with tonight. For there cause is righteous, and they will all live again when the time comes.
When All is One.
FIN
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Author's Notes
This is the first story in my post third impact timeline titled "Pax Evangelion". I hope to do a number of series with this timeline, each with a different approach. The "Revisionist Histories" will be stories (or to be more accurate, monologues or transcripts of speeches), looking at how certain groups of people will look at the events of "Neon Genesis Evangelion" sometime in the future, and how distorted their interpretations will be.
Another series (Title at this point of time unknown) will be told in normal story format, and will actually drive the events in this universe I've created forward, following the lives of the Evangelion characters as they struggle to survive in this brave new world Shinji has created for them.
All these stories will be interconnected, but should hopefully be able to stand on their own merits, and also understandable in their own right. As for what I am planning, the next one is currently being called "Revisionist Histories: Square-Walt Disney".
I would like to thank my two pre-readers, John-kun and Sarevock for their assistance in getting this done right. Even more so to my editor Rion-sempai, who kept me from straying off track a number of times (despite being wrong about the whole First Impact thing :P). Gratitude also goes out to the EFML (particularly Ender, Stephane, Daniel Snyder and Matt Williams) for their comments and criticisms.
~Seph
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Legal Disclaimer: "Neon Genesis Evangelion" is owned and copyrighted by GAINAX, all characters used from that series as well as familiar plot links and scenarios. All names are (TM) and (C) by their respective owners.