Creation began on 11-16-13

Creation ended on 11-25-13

Neon Genesis Evangelion

A New Cause: He walks among us once more

It had been almost two weeks since the Third Angel arrived and remained where it stood in Tokyo-3, the former fortress city that was abandoned. And almost three weeks since NERV's reputation was left in tatters. As the hours continued to pass by, no attempt was made on the enemy that did nothing more than take up the space it occupied; because of its AT-Field, nothing short of a dozen N² weapons could probably do the trick, but nobody was going to destroy a city that cost billions to create and could still be lived in just to eliminate an enemy that made no other moves on them. And so, the threat stayed where it was. While Unit-02 had been sent out a second time to try and deal with it, it was met with the same results of defeat. This left NERV on constant standby until such a time when the Angel could be destroyed was discovered.

"This is ridiculous," went Misato to Ritsuko, as they went down the hall to the cafeteria to get something to eat. "The Angel's right out there, and we can't do anything."

"It's not we can just talk with it," Ritsuko responded, moving around in a motorized wheelchair; ever since she lost the use of her legs, she had become very bitter and more into her work than her friend cared to admit.

"It's been, what, over three weeks since that day?" Misato asked her.

"It wouldn't matter if it had been three months," she countered. "Everyone affected by that day still turn their heads around just to make sure that they're not being followed by his ghost."

"Since when do you believe in ghosts?"

"Since the very day that mother of his just showed up, thinking she could stop him, only to be proven wrong. He didn't stop until after his father and the First Child were killed."

"And this has nothing to do with you losing your legs?"

"Ladies," they stopped talking and looked up ahead, seeing Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki, who, despite his part in the deaths of many innocents, wasn't looked at with contempt by many, as Shinji could've probably killed him, too.

"Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki," Misato addressed. "We were just…"

"At ease," he cut her off. "It's a touchy subject that everyone want to forget, like it was nothing more than a nightmare. I still can't forget that, despite the horror people went through, I never got to see him smile like he did when he was little. He didn't know what was going on, and we still attempted to exploit him. I almost thought I could see something in his eyes that was still good."

"Maybe he wasn't deceiving you," went Ritsuko, "but there's such thing as good in him. Maybe when he was little, but then he changed into a…"

They noticed the look on Fuyutsuki's face when reminded that Shinji ceased being a happy, carefree child…and was looked at as an abomination of mankind with no capacity for remorse or guilt.

"Uh, Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki?" The three turned to see a young, lady technician with ebony hair, probably in her early-twenties, holding a piece of paper. "This was faxed over from a copy shop in Tokyo-2…and…it was instructed to be handed to you."

The elder accepted the paper from her and looked at. It was some sort of message or note addressed to him, reading, "One city down, and seven more to go. In order to heal the world ravaged by those that abuse their authority, many will either suffer or step aside. Back off and you'll know survival, stand against us…and you won't be so lucky. Spread the word."

"A threat?" Misato questioned.

"A warning," Fuyutsuki corrected. "Almost like the message Shinji left when he arrived here from the institute…except this part here, 'one city down, and seven more to go', doesn't make sense."

"Probably somebody wants to see eight cities in the country emptied?" Ritsuko suggested.

"Or maybe some religious cult of fanatics that believe these Angels are actually God's messengers and that it's wrong to try and kill them. Except that we haven't been able to deal with the current Angel up in the city," added Misato.

But somehow, Fuyutsuki didn't believe this message to be associated to anybody or even a group of people with a religious M.O.; there was just something other than the lack of religious themes in the note and no mention of a group name or any other piece of personal information. There was nothing but the fact that there would be seven more cities that would probably be attacked by Angels and that people should either die or walk away.

-x-

GASP! Yui, who was sleeping, awoke from an intense nightmare that was no different from what happened over three weeks ago. She was covered in sweat, panting and looking at the drawings that Shinji drew during his time in the Japan Institute of Insanity, the same place she was in right now, only the ones on the wall were positive. Her most recent dream was of herself on a beach, with white sand, a dark sky and a sea of blood. She had seen a man laying on the shore and went over to him, only to back away because the man was not only dead, but his face had been removed from his head, leaving only a messy spot that had bled out.

Lately, she'd been having nothing but nightmares, probably a sign of the world despising her for her choices, more personal than general. She then groaned in minor discomfort from the healing impalement injury she got from Shinji; she felt the pain of this injury every time she woke up from bad dreams. Fortunately, she wasn't in any danger from such an injury.

Knock-knock-knock! Somebody was at her cell door.

"Who…who is it?" She asked the person outside.

The door opened and one of the guards stepped inside.

"Pack your things, miss," he told her. "You're being transferred elsewhere."

"On whose authority?" She questioned, and another person stepped inside; this was a man she hadn't seen in a long time. "Hei-Bai?"

The man, Hei-Bai, well into his late-thirties, dressed in a business suit, with the ebony hair Yui possessed, stood in front of her and said, "Don't think it the wrong way, sis. Nothing would've made me feel a little better than to be away from you for the rest of my life. Unfortunately, Father just had to call me and ask me to come home from the States after sending me there for my own protection."

"Your protection? From who?"

"From you!"

"M…me?"

"Do you honestly believe Father would let me stay in Japan, knowing that one of his two daughters, you, went and helped a bunch of people he wanted nothing to do with cause problems that you simply can't fix with any brand of science? No, Yui, after that day half the world went away, after he found out you went and married a lunatic thug at that university, he had me shipped off to the States to live with his American friends there, where I wouldn't be exploited or looked down upon. But even there, the past came back to bite me in the ass! It's been allover the media on what happened at that city nobody wants to go anywhere near, about how your son, whom I knew nothing of, not even of what he did years ago to end up the way he did, causing the deaths of over three-hundred people within the course of ten days. My life got turned upside-down, all because of hidden knowledge on a boy I didn't know existed until after Father called me and told me I had to come back here. My own girlfriend even left me, saying that she couldn't be with somebody whose nephew was a killer; it would've been guilt by association, something I already suffer from being related to you. I would've told him that I wanted to stay in the States, but that wasn't up to discussion, as he's already dying from his renal failure and wants what's left of the family to be nearby. And some people want you to work for them on something you did years back."

"Hei-Bai… I was young back then…" Yui tried to explain herself.

"Young and stupid," he cut her off. "Now, look at yourself. You're the scapegoat for your son's crimes, since he couldn't be locked away or executed after dying of all those factors he had. I don't even want to know how and why his brain ended up being the size of a golf ball. Honestly, I don't want to talk about a boy I never got to know…or the other boy your husband killed by accident…or you, who tarnished our family. Period. I don't want to hear any of it. Just get your things and we'll leave."

He turned around and left her alone. The guard followed suit, closing the door and allowing the woman her privacy.

"I already know I'm a scapegoat," she told herself, and got out of bed and grabbed her coat.

-x-

…Knock-knock-knock! One of the security staff of the institution went to the main gate outside in the parking lot and pulled open a viewing slot to see who was knocking on the gate on a day when visiting hours weren't allowed. The person on the other side was wearing a heavy coat with the hood up, so their face was covered.

"What do you want?" The guard asked.

"I'm looking for Yui Ikari," the person answered in a male voice, though it sounded empty and cold.

"There aren't any visiting hours today," the guard informed him.

"It's not a visit," the man responded, holding up a large envelop. "I just need to make sure that she got this. Nothing of any dangerous significance, but of necessary significance. It's more of a parting of the ties that used to bind. You see, another woman gave me a second chance, set me free, and I decided she needed to know, if you catch my drift."

The guard opened the mail slot at the bottom of the gate, and the envelop was slipped through.

"Fine, whatever," he told the man. "I'll make sure she gets it. Now piss off somewhere."

The man then walked away, not offended by the guard's lack of respect toward him, but deciding that some security guards could learn some respect. But he had to deal with another matter that required his special attention.

-x-

"…What's so special about those boxes full of drawings?" Hei-Bai asked his sister, as they were getting ready to be escorted to the car that would transport them to their father's location.

"They were Shinji's," she explained, leaving it simple.

Hei-Bai sighed and asked, "Are they any good?"

"Unlike anything else I've seen him capable of."

Before they could even get outside into the parking lot, one of the guards approached them.

"Yui Ikari!" He shouted.

"Okay, what'd she do this time?" Hei-Bai questioned, and the guard handed over a large envelop.

"Some guy came by and wanted to give you this," the guard explained, and Yui accepted it, opened it up, and pulled out a piece of paper.

"What in the…" Yui gasped, as it was a drawing, almost like the ones Shinji spent most of his life locked away drawing every day.

It depicted Shinji, looking as he did before he passed away, carrying his bag of guns and ammo, wielding a gun in his right hand, and accompanied by a baby that looked exactly like Mako before he died, wrapped in a red blanket, floating beside his twin as he walked toward an unknown destination in what looked like a city in the background.

"Huh?" Hei-Bai reacted to the drawing, wondering who would send his disgrace of a sister something like this. "Who dropped this off?"

"I never saw the guy's face," the guard told him. "He said a woman set him free, gave him a second chance or something like that."

"Yui, does this mean anything to you?" Hei-Bai asked her.

But Yui didn't answer her brother. It wasn't because she didn't think he'd believe her, but because of how disturbingly similar it was to Shinji's other drawings made later in his years. The details were so intricate, so surreal and almost nightmarish that she couldn't fool herself into thinking it wasn't any different from her son's work. No, this had to be her son's work, only more effort went into making it.

-x-

The worst part of trying to own land outside of the abandoned city that was Tokyo-3…was trying to keep track of the number of animals that were fortunate enough to survive Second Impact. But that was made more difficult by trying to breed them and keep them in check. The Hakone Animal Preservation Farm was facing hard times made harder due to the presence of the Third Angel being a mockery of the giant statue in the States, only larger and looking like it was made of flesh and seaweed.

"…Hey, we got problems with the horses again," a woman yelled to one of her co-worker, standing outside the third stable house that held the younger generation of horses they were breeding after they had some sent to other parts of the ravaged planet that needed them. "They sound more agitated than they were last week."

"Coming," a man responded over a walkie-talkie, and the woman saw a golf cart coming her way.

Two men got out and approached the woman.

"Just how agitated are we talking?" One of the men, carrying a medical case, asked her.

"Very," she responded, and the cries of the horses inside the stables became louder.

"Okay, let's go see what the problem is. Probably just another pregnant mare throwing a fit."

"Except that there hasn't been a pregnant mare since the seventh one from eight months ago."

"You never know."

They then entered the stables and saw several horses of various colors (black, red, tawny, brown, etc.), in their stables, neighing like crazy, but restrained so they couldn't cause harm to each other.

"Wait a minute," the second guy expressed, looking at the horses in their agitation, seeing the way they brought up their front legs and reared their heads. "This isn't agitation, it's fear. These horses are frightened by something."

Thump! The woman's left foot kicked over some old saddle equipment, and found that, due to the time she spent caring for the horses, one of the saddles was missing; there were seven saddles in total, and she saw only six of them.

"Was there any scheduled horseback riding today?" She asked the men.

"No," the one with the medical kit answered her, as the other guy wandered further into the building and disappeared around a corner.

"Hey, when did we breed this horse over here?" He called out to them, and they came to see.

"Which one?" The woman asked, seeing several other horses of various colors and patterns.

"That one on the left, with the head that looks like those of a unicorn," he identified the one, and it was an unusual horse, looking like a silvery unicorn.

"Hey, I don't know anything about this horse!" The other guy said, and saw that it had a saddle on its back, like it had been recently set to be taken out. "There's someone behind it!"

The woman then took out a gun from behind her and raised it at the strange horse.

"This is medical and security of the APF!" She shouted. "Come out from behind the horse, out into the open, quietly!"

A pair of legs appeared from behind the horse, wearing black, leather pants and knee-high boots of the same color. Their owner walked from behind the horse and revealed themselves to the three.

"My God," the woman shuddered, unable to believe that the man in front of them was one they knew to be old news. "This can't be."

The men looked at the guy and couldn't seem to take in other features beyond the right arm wearing a metallic, oversized, black and silver gauntlet.

"This mare belongs to me now," the mystery man told them, addressing the unicorn-like horse. "Kindly step aside…or know relentless fury."

"Know this," the woman responded, aiming at his chest, covered by a black and red coat that extended down to his upper pants. "I don't take any bull from a kid that disappeared almost a month ago after all the devastation he caused just to get back at his old man."

BANG, BANG, BANG! She fired at him, watched him stagger backwards, but he didn't fall, even though she had shot him in the chest.

"Oh?" The men behind her awed in fear.

"I really didn't want to do this today, even to get my horse," the guy told them, suddenly holding a large kama in his left hand, "but you've just sealed your fate, as the city needed to be emptied, anyway."

He then ran up to the woman, and severed her head off with such unnatural speed.

"Aaaahh!" The men screamed, as their co-worker's head fell to the ground.

"Hey, man!" The one that used to hold the kit that fell to his feet panicked. "The horse's yours! Take it! I want to live! I wanna live!"

"Me, too!" The other one panicked. "Me, too!"

"You have till the count of ten to get the Hell outta my sight," he told them. "One…"

They got the message and ran like Hell out of the stables while he finished strapping the saddle on the horse he'd been informed would be waiting for him here…and that he'd knew where to find her. Once the straps were all fastened, he climbed atop the horse, stroked the right side of her neck, and took hold of the straps and put his feet on the leg braces.

"Let's get outta here," he told her. "Yah!"

The horse neighed and galloped out of the place, past the two men and her new rider yelled out, "To the lost souls of the Earth, the Restorative is upon us!"

-x-

"…Hey, we got another Angel sighting!" Makoto Hyuga alerted the rest of the personnel in Central Dogma. "This Angel's in the States!"

"What's an Angel doing in the land of the free?" Aoba Shigeru wondered aloud.

"It's heading for what's left of…New York?" Hyuga revealed.

"But there's nothing there…except a bunch of people trying to rebuild the place."

But Misato, Ritsuko and Fuyutsuki were the only ones that could see some of the reason for this. Tokyo-3 was the first city…and New York's damaged Big Apple was the second city to be invaded by an Angel. Probably in the same fashion as the Third Angel.

-x-

People were screaming as the Angel made its presence known to the people that survived in New York. It looked like a giant, reddish squid without its tentacles, flying in the sky above the buildings that had been built years ago in the reconstruction program. As this creature soared through the maimed city that was trying to rebuild itself, atop one of the buildings still in the progress of being completed, a man atop a red horse looked down at the people running for their lives. A slight smile formed on his face as he viewed them as smart enough to consider leaving the city, but dumb to think the Angel was going to hurt them. Oh, no, that wasn't the task for the Angel. It was a task for him…if it became necessary for him to do so.

-x-

As he rode his mare atop a large hill, the rider saw from afar, elsewhere in the world, the second Angel that made its presence known as it stood upright beside one of the World Trade Center buildings and did nothing further than that. He had also seen, atop a work in-progress building, a man atop a red horse, looking like he'd seen better days. There was the likelihood that this place he'd never seen, this New York City, was that man's domain for the time being, just as Tokyo-3 was his own for the time being, based on the way he was informed. That meant that two cities were now incorporated into the grand design…with only six cities left to be made the preparation points by the Angels that would show themselves in due time.

In due time, he thought, stopping at the top of the hill, looking at the city that was the first of the set to be prepared. In due time.

-x-

"Yui Ikari," greeted the elderly man known as Kiel Lorenz to the young woman that created the science behind the Evangelions. "Welcome back."

While she was being led around the building in what was left of the town of Nagoya, her brother, Hei-Bai, was meeting with their ailing father, who looked worse than the previous time they met. The man, in his sixties, hooked to a machine to filter his blood for him, looked at him and greeted him with a small smile; it had been over a decade since they last met.

"Father," Hei-Bai spoke up.

"Hei-Bai," his father responded. "It's good to see you again. How was your stay in the States?"

"It was…good…until my girlfriend left me," he expressed, a little bitter.

"I am sorry to hear that."

"You have no idea how difficult it is, knowing that my past had a loose end I didn't know about…and that there were consequences that didn't need to occur that cost the lives of over two-hundred people. To think that one person, let alone a fourteen-year-old born to two maniacs, could take so many lives when all he wanted was to murder his father."

"That's the downside of ignorance, stupidity, or being hard at understanding to the consequences yet to unfold in front of you. I never got to know the twins, either, let alone the one that lived to be fourteen. Not because I'm dying, mind you, but because of that prick Yui married."

"You mean, that 'A'-hole didn't want anyone seeing Shinji while he was in the loony bin? Makes me a little…glad that he was murdered by someone that hated him."

"But to kill one that is hated…is to kill many that one hates…and then be hunted…just because you take lives, regardless of whether they were guilty or innocent."

"And the only pity of knowing that Shinji probably did many a great favor by eliminating Gendo…and that the people that didn't even know him…except for his crimes, cast him in darkness, even after he died, so that he's despised for years to come so long as people bring him up in pathetic conversations."

"Now that you've returned, what shall you do?"

"I have no intention of doing what you were forced to do by that woman, just so that you know. My major was in medicine, neurology in particular. I just wanted to help people that couldn't help themselves. Unlike some scientists, I got nothing to prove, no desire to make my mark in history or save the world or some nonsense like that."

"Heh-heh, I don't know what my friends in the States taught you, but I won't stand in your way. Just be careful on your way out. There is a room for you here until you're settled on your own terms."

"Thank you, Father."

The two men parted on good terms, and the younger man stepped out into the hall, just in time to see Yui walking his way. He gave her a slight frown and immediately turned away, leaving her to face their old man while he went to do something good with his life.

Yui had to suspect that, even though Hei-Bai and their father never conversed a lot (as far as she knew), they were still able to get along, unlike Shinji and everyone he came across, whom were either killed or left for dead. She then stepped into the room and met her father for the first time in over twelve years.

"Father?" She greeted.

-x-

"…This is the second Angel that has invaded a major city and done nothing other than making itself no different from a monument!" A military official expressed in a secret meeting.

"And like the first invader, it shows up, forces the people to flee, then just stands around somewhere and remains untouchable," a second official added.

"Now, New York City," a third official expressed concern, "has been under our Restoration Program ever since Two-Thousand-Four, and we were eight months left from completion until this happened."

"And as with the previous Angel, as some of the people are calling these monsters, it hasn't done anything to show hostility other than just being a thorn in our side and taking space, so the use of an N² weapon is outside probable cause in getting rid of it without taking the whole city with it."

"…So…so long as these Angels continue to do nothing other than take up space where they parked, showing no hostility, whatsoever, we, what, put up with them?" Another military official asked. "Why can't we just use the Evangelion that was sent to Japan to deal with it? Surely by now, they've found a way to deal with the Angel that took up residence in that city that was emptied long before it showed it up by that dead kid."

"No, after its initial encounter, they've done nothing to the Angel to risk provoking it."

"They're scared of it. Of course, I don't blame them for being such. The Angel was reported to have made a negative gesture telling them not to try anything. Since then, it's been standing around, like it's waiting for something. It's a stalemate, basically; NERV does nothing to the Angel…and the Angel does nothing to them in turn."

-x-

If the Fourth Angel was going to make a move on what was left of New Jersey after arriving in New York, it didn't give any indication of such a thought. At least, that's what most of the people that used to live in the most populated city in the United States wanted to believe. But so far, the Angel hadn't done anything after reaching the World Trade Center towers; it just stood there.

"When it is gonna do something?" A man asked to his fellow men.

"Yeah, we've been running here for hours after that thing showed up! We've been waiting all day!" A woman complained, and as the people complained about being forced out of their homes in the Big Apple, several news media outlets were at work reporting the crisis that was yet to come.

"…Since its arrival, it has remained beside the World Trade Center, completely immobile…"

"…The Restoration Program has had to postpone the completion of the city until the matter involving this creature has been resolved…"

"…All entrances and exits to and from New York have been closed down, isolating the city from the rest of the area, a no-go zone…"

"…Similar methods are being taken like those in Japan, making it difficult to determine when, and if ever possible, either city will be livable again…"

As the news people continued to blabber, some people, just faces in the crowds, with vacant or negative expressions, looked at the massive Angel and wondered how long until what they knew was going to happen happened. They were a patient bunch, but there was a limit to how long they wanted to wait.

-x-

Unfortunately, in all the mayhem of simply trying to get out of the city, there were those that were either unable to, or were unwilling to, like the street gangs that were running around, smashing into shops and taking whatever they wanted.

"Man, this is what I love about an empty city!" A man cheered, carrying a stack of Apple products. "No worries about money!"

"Yeah, boy!" One of his friends agreed, and they hopped into their car and rode off from the broken-into Apple Store.

Neigh! The sound of a horse neighing caught their attention, which seemed out of place.

"What the Hell was that?" One of the four men that robbed the store asked.

"It sounded like a horse," the second one responded.

"But…there aren't any horses left in New York," said the third guy.

Neigh! The neighing of the horse got louder and louder, until, on the road further down from their car, they saw the source of the neighing. It was a horse, going against the belief that there weren't any left around, but it wasn't one of those wild ones…and it certainly wasn't one owned by the police, either. It was a red horse, covered in rusted, cracked, old armor from head to tail, with glowing eyes that looked like fire contained in flesh, almost brutal in its appearance, and atop it was its rider, who brandished a large sword that burned like fire.

"Whoa!" The men gasped, stopping their car.

"What the fuck, man?!" The driver gasped.

"Leave the city now…and don't come back lest you value your life," the rider atop the horse demanded of them, sounding demonic and full of brutality.

"Run him over," the guy in the passenger seat told the driver. "Kill him."

"I will count to ten, and you had best run to the nearest bridge," the rider told them, his eyes flaring. "One…two…three…"

The car then burned the rubber of its tires and accelerated toward the horse and its rider, with its four passengers laughing like pricks without a care.

"She won't be pleased about this," the rider expressed, "but on the other hand, I get to do my job."

He raised his sword at the approaching car…and unleashed an inferno upon it. In five seconds, there was nothing left of the vehicle…except the scent of burnt flesh.

"Two cities down, and six more will follow," the rider expressed, and pulled the reins of his horse and ran down the street, his burning sword cooled down to reveal a battered blade of blue steel.

-x-

While awaiting further orders, the rider of the white, unicorn-like horse sat against a tree, looking up at the sky, being lazy as his horse ate the grass around it. He then brought up his right arm and looked at the gauntlet present, seeing the engraved marking on the backhand side of it, in the form of a sickle…and the letters on the wrist, making the name that he was now known by to those he would meet and those that would come to either fear or respect him…but not to the other guy that stayed with him. While the new name still took some getting used to, he became more accustomed to it by remembering the murders he committed back when he was who he still resembled; no matter how much he could've considered believing, he didn't truly live, and there was nothing that could be said to convince him that he did live, for he only had days where every hour was a battle just to see the next day and murder his priority target that aided in making his early years to his final days a Hell that had no escape.

"I can see how hard it is for you to become relaxed, even when you have nothing to do," he looked away from his gauntlet and to his left, seeing the spirit of his life and death companion. "I don't suppose you could try smiling just once, could you?"

You know, it's not easy for me, he thought, knowing his companion could hear his thoughts, making speech unnecessary. Maybe in another future.

"I hold you to it. I want to see you smile."

Then, with some effort, the rider's lips curled up and revealed his teeth.

The fellow spirit, if he had a face to demonstrate such emotions, found that while his twin was getting easier to be around, smiling was simply not one of the things he was good at. It had no doubt stemmed from the negatives of his upbringing, which left permanent damage that lingered in this state of purgatory until they received new life that cleansed them both of the darkness that their parents left. He found it to be a double pity that such things, such as their sins, don't stay buried, even after the loss of their flesh.

"At least you're trying," he told him, and his twin's attempt at smiling stopped.

"I think it's time we met the three altogether," the rider told his companion, getting up. "Alone, the each of us are able to cause problems to an extent, but altogether, we're a storm against oppressors and tyrants that stand in our way."

The spirit of the dead child disappeared as the rider got on his horse, making his presence known once more as the horseman that would decide the fate of many. His gauntlet read Death, and that was the end to all, living things.

A/N: Well, here's chapter two, and you see some of the next character that will be known. Until the next chapter. Peace!