Creation began on 01-09-17
Creation ended on 01-16-17
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Immortal Ikari: It has begun
A/N: The battle of the immortals is here!
"…Is everything alright at home, Shinji?" Toji asked the little boy as they, Kensuke and Hikari were on the school roof eating their lunch. "You look rather…restless."
It wasn't unnoticed by Kensuke or Hikari, either, that Shinji seemed to be unable to remain still lately for the last two days. The boy seemed to pace back and forth by the fence as he looked at them.
"Sorry," he apologized to them. "Akira and I, along with any other immortal that has arrived into the city, have started to feel the effects of the Gathering's pull on us. We haven't done anything extreme yet, but none of us are able to ignore the pull. Pretty soon, we'll be drawn to meet somewhere in as close to the center of the city as possible so that we all know who's who. Everyone, friend or foe, will have to face one another to claim the Prize. Only three of the temples have been completed, but they're only a temporary refuge for any of us that want to prolong the inevitable outcome. I'm sorry, but do I seem crazy when I speak and pace back and forth at the same time?"
"No, you don't," said Hikari to him. "You just seem nervous when you do."
"You should see Akira. When I left the apartment, she was cooking enough meals to feed thirty people. That was probably her way of dealing with the problem. I know I must sound crazy when I say this, but I don't want to have to face her in the end, even if it's inevitable. I could probably handle it if it were someone I despised a lot, like my father, may his soul burn in Hell, but I can't handle facing Akira. I mean, she's not just my teacher in the knowledge of what to do and what not to do in the shadow world of the immortals, she's family, and I love her."
They saw him stop pacing and fall to his bottom on the ground.
"I don't want to lose my head…and I don't want her to lose hers, either."
The three could see how this was affecting Shinji heavily. How could any of them relate to his situation that was far different from any other situation they might've heard of? Most of the time, it could've been a situation where one had to be forced to kill a friend or loved one because you were being manipulated by a criminal or were trapped underground with limited supplies and the darkness and claustrophobia deteriorated your mind and moral compass. But they didn't know how to compare any of these situations to one where you were unable to die unless beheaded by another person that was unable to die…and you did so only to survive in some sort of struggle between light and darkness, good and evil, to be the last one standing.
"Where there's light, there's hope, Shinji," Hikari suggested to him, trying to remind him that there might still be ways to walk away from the possibility of having to face his ancestress.
-x-
Even though it was still holy ground, the mysterious man hid on the grounds of the temple couldn't resist the pull of wherever it was he had to go in the city, and followed it to wherever in the city he had to go to meet the other immortals that were gathering.
The more you fight it, the harder it is to resist, he thought, walking down the stone steps of the western temple, going straight towards the city.
-x-
Dressed in a summer yukata and concealing her katana in a decorative traveling tube, Akira wandered around the streets of Tokyo-3 to wherever she was supposed to meet the other immortals left in the world that had gathered here. With the strongest of pulls, she had to deduce that everyone that was here was all within the city, having settled wherever they could and were as ready as they ever could be for the inevitable outcome that was at hand. She looked at her iPhone and checked the time, and sighed at how it was likely that Shinji was within the city, as well.
Of course, that's assuming that he hasn't already left the school during school hours, she thought, but she knew that Shinji wouldn't be able to resist, either.
-x-
"…Mister Ikari," went the teacher to Shinji, who suddenly got up and walked towards the classroom door. "Class hasn't let out yet."
But Shinji wasn't listening. He just opened the door and stepped out of the room.
The students looked at Hikari, who did nothing to stop him from going, and were wondering why.
"Uh, Kensuke, didn't you mention earlier that something terrible happened to Shinji?" Hikari asked the military otaku, improvising a lie.
"Uh, yeah, I did," he picked up on the ruse. "Prolonged exposure to a untested chemical over at NERV may have resulted in a non-contagious illness that strikes at his lower intestines. He was allowed to attend school for a brief period today, but then he had to go to NERV HQ to start his medication."
"Oh, gosh! I can't believe I forgot about that," added Toji in the ruse. "He looked fine to me when I saw him earlier today. I hope he'll be alright."
Unfortunately, Rei was the only one that knew that this was nothing more than a lie. Something else was up with the Third Child. Something that didn't involve NERV, whatsoever.
Shinji ran out of the school building and down the street, towards the taller buildings in the city.
Where shall we meet? He wondered.
-x-
"…This is strange," went Shigeru in Central Dogma, looking over the geography of the city above the Geo-Front.
"What's strange?" Maya and Hyuga asked him.
"There's a strange flow of energy readings occurring in the city's power grid," he explained. "It looks similar to lay lines."
"What the heck are lay lines?" Maya questioned.
"They're an old myth of supernatural energy that occurs within certain places during certain times," Hyuga answered her, looking at the console monitor. "Except those don't look like any lay lines I've ever seen before."
The lay lines in question resembled a series of circles, triangles, squares and rectangles made into a shape that resembled a type of sun with a crescent moon on its left side with a strange "X" surrounding it, and it encompassed most of the city.
"Looks like something a kid drew," Shigeru expressed.
"Extremely," added Maya.
-x-
There were so many people in the city where Shinji was wandering right now to find the location where the other immortals were meeting. He had to run in between several legs just to cross the street, upsetting a few people that saw him.
Whoosh! He felt the presence of other immortals nearby, and looked up towards a skyscraper with a large Taoist symbol on the side and what looked like shrubbery on the roof.
He felt drawn to the building, and crossed the next street to get to his new destination.
-x-
The Taoist Building Fountain Garden was among the tallest buildings in Tokyo-3 and the location of where the immortals had gathered for their meeting.
"My Kami," sighed Akira, seeing the artificial grass and marble fountains that led to a large circle with the incorporated Taoist symbol where you could walk onto it. "Never in my years of living to see remarkable places like this have I expected to see a fountain garden like this before."
"You said it, Akira," went Quentin to the woman.
"Akira Rokubungi," said a female immortal with a thick, French accent, dressed in an evening dress with her head shaved on the sides with the remaining hair on her top tied into a ponytail. "I haven't seen or heard from you in seventy-three years."
The French immortal Akira knew only as Le Femme Aceline back when they first met on the Eiffel Tower…and managed to avoid her fury by escaping to Notre-Dame by parachuting to safety. She had, apparently, changed her looks to blend in with people of today's generation, despite still being the cold-hearted forty-two-year-old she had seen and disliked for her pre-emptive strike on her.
"Le Femme Aceline…I think," she addressed the woman that nearly killed her that night all those decades ago. "Unless, of course, you've changed your name."
"I've been called Madeline for the last twenty years," the woman responded. "Maybe now that the Gathering's in force, we'll pick up where we left off that night in Paris."
"Not until you go through me," said a dark-skinned immortal man, dressed in a red tracksuit with sunglasses. "I call dibs on the princess before you, evil queen."
"I didn't think you would be here, Jose," Akira addressed the man.
Only nineteen immortals had arrived, and Akira only recognized twelve of them as mainly friends and allies over the years…with the others being foes because she didn't know them.
"Aren't we shy an immortal?" A woman asked, which sent a chill down everyone else's spine.
It was the woman known as Diana Akuma, who stood away from the others, throwing cold glares to each of them, only seeing them as obstacles on her path to untold powers that awaited her.
Le Femme Aceline, or Madeline, looked at her and gasped.
"You must be her," she uttered. "The one they call The Demoness."
Most of the older immortals all looked at Diana and felt nothing but intimidation. Even Akira herself was unable to hide her fear of this woman…and they also had history.
"The Demoness," she uttered, "second only to The Kurgan. Where he was considered the strongest of the immortals, you're considered the deadliest."
"The Kurgan," Diana, or rather The Demoness, responded. "Not too long ago, I sought out that Russian outcast only to claim his head and all of his power. I was hoping for a great battle between the strongest and the deadliest immortals, only to be disappointed when I heard that he was beheaded by Connor MacLeod. Oh, I was sad for the first time in many centuries. The Kurgan wasn't as strong as many believed him to be. But I got over it. The head of the immortal that beat him was adequate compensation for my slights."
With those words, Akira and Quentin were left displeased with this revelation; neither knew of the immortal that killed Connor. And if this woman killed him, then it was possible that she killed Duncan, as well.
"So what do you hope to gain out of this?" Quentin asked her.
"Heh-heh-heh… The Prize," she answered him, "and each of your heads. But you failed to answer my question. Aren't we shy an immortal? Some little boy?"
"Nope," they all heard a little boy's voice and turned to some steps where said immortal boy had just came. "Wow. I didn't expect to see so many."
"My God," the immortal Jose gasped. "They truly do exist. Immortal children."
"This day continues to bear gifts," Le Femme Aceline expressed. "I've never seen a child immortal so young…or as handsome."
"Back off, Aceline," Akira threatened her. "Go near him, and I will take your head off."
Shinji went over to Akira and saw an immortal man that was…disturbingly odd.
"That man," he expressed to his grandmother, and she saw him…and immediately wished she hadn't because of a memory that returned.
So, he's an immortal himself, she thought, unable to believe this because it seemed to explain only a few things and left other things that needed to be explained. "The world's gotten smaller now."
The man looked at them…and recognized the woman as one he had seen years ago, and turned his head away towards Le Femme Aceline.
"Twenty immortals," The Demoness uttered. "Twenty adversaries. But only nineteen heads will fall in order to win the Game and claim the Prize."
"And to the victor go the spoils," said Aceline, "but not here…and not today. This is only a meeting between immortals. At the stroke of midnight…the Gathering becomes an all-out war. Every immortal for themselves. See you around, Akira. I'll be sure to bring my sword with me the next time I see you."
And with that, Aceline turned and walked towards the steps to vacate the fountain garden.
The Demoness followed suit, leaving the others to their own activities while she returned to her current dwellings to prepare further for the battles that lay ahead.
"Peace out, Akira," went Jose as he left, giving the elder woman a fist bump.
"Always a pleasure, Akira," said Quentin to her as he left, but he stuck around to say more. "I hope you don't face The Demoness. I want her head for my own reasons."
"If you face her, be careful," she warned him. "She's not to be taken lightly. If she did beat Connor, who beat The Kurgan, then she has their powers add to her own, which is formidable."
Quetin sighed and would keep that in mind.
"Good luck," he told them both.
All the other immortals left, except for Shinji, Akira and the man they saw that wasn't looking at them.
"Do you know who that man is?" Shinji asked Akira, who sighed heavily.
"I fear I do," she responded, which only helped to confuse him.
They then approached the man, enabling Shinji to get a better look at him up close. The guy was clearly in his late-thirties, dressed in worn-out jeans, a faded shirt and trench coat, and a long, blue scarf tied around his neck. His facial features were almost comparable to Gendo's, but less skin on the cheeks and a smaller nose and blue eyes, with his hair shorter and only one bang hanging over his nose.
"I am Akira Rokubungi," Akira introduced herself. "Who are you?"
"Masaki," he responded, and his voice tone echoed different memories in both grandmother and grandson. "Masaki Nagisa."
"And before then?" Akira asked him.
"Takeru Nagisa."
"I knew it. Takeru, the man that married one of my many granddaughters, Kaede, and had two children with her, only to leave them after a decade. I hope you can give me a reason not to want your head."
Shinji couldn't believe he was standing in front of his other grandfather, his father's father, who had somehow achieved immortality through a First Death. It would've made sense to some of what happened over the many years that passed.
"I didn't really want to leave Kaede or our children, but I didn't want to endanger them by being around them," Takeru explained. "I was out grocery shopping one evening…and I took a shortcut through an alley…where a gang fight occurred."
"There were reports of gang fights that escalated in the neighborhood," Akira responded. "Street gangs trying to claim more territory from rival gangs."
"I saw two teens with guns shooting at everything, and I tried to get away, only to get shot twice in the back. My last thoughts were of dying in that alley…until I woke up moments later…when everyone was gone. I didn't know if it was a blessing or a curse when I got up and went home, but I didn't want to talk about it."
"Not many people find immortality to be a blessing when they discover what it brings. So what did you discover later on?"
"I met a man that was traveling one day in the town, called himself Duncan MacLeod, and for a few days told me about what was going on and what was in store for me, about the Game, the Rules, the Prize and how I had to protect my head. Terror filled my veins when I learned there were others out there, those that actually look for other immortals, purposely, to claim their heads. The fear of what they could've done to me wasn't my greatest, however, it was what they could've done to Kaede, Rihoko and Gendo had I stayed with them."
"So you abandoned your family," went Shinji, "said cruel things on the way out…because you feared for their safety from other immortals?"
"Believe me, not a day went by where I regretted saying those cold-hearted things I said. I couldn't risk their safety by staying. I wanted to go back many times, but I always felt the presence of some immortal nearby. So I stayed away."
"Even after Second Impact?" Akira asked him. "How did you manage to survive all these years?"
"I stayed out of the Game by doing what was the only thing possible: I stayed on holy ground for as long as possible, wherever it existed."
"Wait, if you stayed out of the Game, then…that means you never fought against other immortals. You've never experienced a Quickening?" Shinji asked him, which would've been…unreal to him.
"It was bad enough being killed over a meaningless pursuit of territory, I wasn't about to become a killer for something that might've been greater than mere territory," Takeru explained to them. "Even if there was a chance of just being permitted to grow old and die, I wasn't going to kill for it, no matter how much I wanted it. I lack the willingness to do what is necessary in that department."
"At least you were able to walk away from the Game for that long," Shinji expressed, giving him praise for something he couldn't do then. "If I were in your place at the time, I would've walked away, too. Unfortunately, I can't now. Gotta do what I can to stay alive…because I want to live to see old age like those around me."
"You believe the Prize to be…the right to live as a mortal again?"
"What the Prize is and what it entitles…depends upon the one left standing to receive it. In the end, there can be only one…and in the end, there will be only one. I just hope it's a benevolent immortal."
"Well, rest assured, as much as I want to be benevolent, I won't play the Game," he said to him, and then looked to Akira. "If you want my head, it's yours. I won't try to fight you."
Akira sighed and responded, "No. As much as I despised you for leaving your family, taking your head would be the wrong thing to do. If there's a way for you to return to mortality without playing the Game, the ones that do play it are bound to find it, eventually. So long as you stay on holy ground, your safety is assured. I would suggest that you see your son, but Gendo is… Well, let's just say that, all things considered, he's not a man anyone can hope to understand right now."
"My son is alive?"
"Yeah, just not a nice guy," said Shinji. "I hate who he is and what he's done…and what he wants to do. I get that he's your son and all, but he's a monster."
"You're Gendo's son?"
"Not one of the things I'm proud of, but yes, I am."
"But…you don't look even remotely like him. You…you honestly look more like your grandmother and aunt."
"Some say I get my looks more from my mother, but we're not on good terms, either. It's a long story."
"Filled with grief and manipulation," added Akira.
Takeru sighed as realization kicked in that his leaving his family years ago had a detrimental effect on Gendo…and didn't reflect well upon his grandson.
"My apologies for whatever Gendo has done to you both," he stated.
"It's not really me he's done anything to," Akira told him. "It's just Shinji here. Your actions were echoed by Gendo when Shinji was less than four years old, after his mother's so-called death. It's impossible to mend a relationship between parents and children that won't be."
-x-
"…So, the Third Child just up and left the school?" Gendo asked Rei, who returned to NERV HQ shortly after school was let out, in his office.
"Yes, Commander Ikari," she answered him.
"And he gave no indication of where he was going?"
"No, sir."
Gendo then sighed; none of the Section Two agents tasked with keeping an eye on the Third Child were able to locate him after he left the school, with their only excuse being that they didn't expect to be tasked with finding a little boy. Truth be told, the boy would've been easier to track if he'd been microchipped like a cat or dog, then he couldn't get away from people that were charged with keeping watch over him. But even if he could convince Yui to agree to it, there was a chance that those people the boy lived with would be against it, along with the boy himself.
"Dismissed," he told Rei, who turned and left out the office.
"Well," went Fuyutsuki to Gendo, "what do you intend to do if something has happened to him? If this skipping of class and leaving the school was something his guardians had no awareness of, they can't be held accountable for his whereabouts."
"The Section Two agents I tasked with watching their apartment will inform us of his return if he goes back there," Gendo answered him.
"And if he doesn't?"
Gendo didn't respond.
-x-
All things considered, not even cheeseburgers and fries could lift Akira's spirits after that meeting of the immortals atop the Taoist Building. There were revelations that just shook other beliefs and unmade them for what they once meant. For the longest time, she, and by extension, Takuya and Shinji, were led to believe that Takeru had abandoned his family because he was just some asshole that grew tired of being a family man. Now, after so many years, she knew the truth…and it bothered her to know that Takeru was an immortal that left his family to keep them safe from harm by other immortals that would've came after them. She couldn't hate the man for doing what he did as much as she had before; every immortal had to make hard choices, to leave their family for their safety, and he was one of them, and he paid a heavy price for doing so.
Shinji, dipping a nugget into barbecue sauce, tried to think of a scenario in which his father and grandfather met and an explanation could be made on why things happened the way they did. But each imagined encounter between the aged son and the immortal father ended up going wrong. He just kept seeing Takeru being used as a lab rat by his son, trying to find a way to gain immortality for himself.
"We can't tell the bastard that his old man is here at all, can we, Akira?" He asked her.
"I don't think we can tell him anything, Shinji," she responded. "How could we tell him the truth when he himself won't tell the truth? He's probably lied so many times, he doesn't know what the truth is. And Takeru… He's regretted what he's done for years, and he can't change Gendo, no matter what he tries. His son's a terminal case of megalomania with a pack of dynamite ready to go off."
"Not dynamite, Akira. An atom bomb, and we all wanna get far away if that happens."
"Yeah, Shinji."
-x-
"…With the bolts tightened, Shinji shouldn't have a problem getting around on this now," Takuya told himself as he finished securing Shinji's bike so that his grandson could have more freedom around the city streets.
Of course, the bike meant for Shinji wasn't a tricycle or unicycle. Because there were no bikes suited to his size, Takuya and Akira built Shinji a minibike. It wasn't all that hard, since all three of them had knowledge of mechanics (something both Akira and Shinji received from basic studying and the Quickenings of their fallen adversaries that had before being beheaded while he himself had the luxury of just reading up and knowing the parts needed to construct a bike). Although, because Shinji was striving to be clean-energy reliant, the bike engine had to be either electrical or run on a clean and renewable source, such as biodiesel.
"Hello, Mr. Rokubungi," he heard a female say behind him, and he turned to see the woman.
It was Yui, blocking the sunlight he used to make the final checkup for Shinji's bike.
"Miss Ikari," he addressed, picking up a rag and wiping his hands clean of elbow grease. "What brings you here to this grease monkey pit?"
"I was wondering if you knew where Shinji was," she told him.
Takuya looked at his watch and it was past after school hours for Shinji to be out and about. If he wasn't at NERV or with Akira, he was likely at one of the temples.
"Well, if he's not with Akira, he's likely at one of the temples," he suggested.
"He left school early today, and nobody's been able to find him."
"If anyone can find him, it's Akira. She always knows where to find him."
"How can you be so sure of this?"
Getting up to his feet, Takuya responded, "Akira is just one of those people who is beyond compare with other people of today's generation, and Shinji took to her faster than he took to me."
"Yet, neither of you bring up his unchanged state of being, why he hasn't aged beyond the state of development he was at when…he was harmed." Yui stated.
"If it's not broken, don't try to fix it. Sometimes, people develop slower than others. Physical growth can be stunted, however, by many factors. In Shinji's case, it's childhood trauma. It's not everyday you find yourself brutally attacked by a caregiver that was able to fool the authorities into believing she was just temporarily insane. While he has gotten over it, he can't forgive they who have hurt him, either directly or indirectly. Anyway, I don't poke at something that isn't my business to poke at. I'm just glad that he's involved in my life, same as Akira."
Again, Yui was reminded that after her alleged death, Gendo entrusted her sister with their son's well-being, and that ended up being the wrong choice.
Ring-ring-ring! A cell phone rang, and Yui picked up hers.
"Yes?" She went. "Really? He is? They are? Thank you."
When she hung up, she explained that Shinji was just seen in the city with Akira at one of the parks.
"You worry too much over nothing," Takuya told her. "Not everything happens as it must or should happen as we expect them to."
As Yui turned to leave, she recognized his choice of words to say to her. It was almost an opposite to what she had told Fuyutsuki when Shinji was still a baby, how she felt everything happens as they must, but the chances of him knowing what to say to counter her beliefs were slim to none. She then turned and walked away as he closed the garage door.
-x-
"…Laying down," went Shinji as he laid his head on Akira's lap as she sat on a bench in the park. "Nice way to ease digestion."
"Once again, I told you not to eat that many nuggets," Akira told him.
They were out until the sun went down. Neither wanted to go home just yet.
"You sure nobody's going to try something until the next day?" Shinji asked her.
"That's how the Gathering works," she told him. "We show up, once we're all here, we go to meet so that we are all able to know who will be involved and who you must face to survive. Come midnight, however, none of us are safe, except on holy ground."
"That woman… The one who was called The Demoness… I've never met someone that gave me chills that lingered even after meeting them hours ago. Who is she, anyway?"
"The Demoness is an ancient immortal, far older than any of the previous ones I've encountered over the past. She's before the Bible, she's before the Tower of Babel, the Egyptians and other ancient civilizations long gone. Even older than The Kurgan was before he died. I don't know how old she really is, but some of the other immortals whose ages are in the quadruple digits believe she's been around for over ten-thousand years."
Shinji turned his head to face hers and uttered, "If she's truly that old, then there's no telling what she's capable of. She's beyond anything I've seen before. Beyond beyond."
"If you face her, be careful. Child immortals lack the strength of adult immortals, but I got faith that the skills I've imparted to you, along with your recent skills developed, will give you an edge against her."
"Somehow, I don't think she'll be easy for anyone, no matter who goes up against her. I may need the edge of my recent development."
"The Angel-endowed Quickenings?"
"If I can obtain a few more of those, I might be on even ground with her if I face her."
"I believe you, so I'm saving her for last myself."
"Good luck in the coming days."
"Same to you."
-x-
"…Strange, finding you here this late at night, Yui," said Fuyutsuki to the young woman standing in front of Unit-01 in the cages. "I thought you'd try to reconnect with Shinji after finding out he was with Akira in the city."
"I thought about it, but then I realized something," Yui responded to him.
"Which is?"
"I think Shinji knows a lot more than he lets on. A lot more. How this is so, I don't know. It may relate to why he hasn't aged in four years."
"By 'a lot more', you mean, what we're doing?"
"Yeah, and we need to know how much he knows."
"What makes you think this?"
"Something his uncle said to me earlier today when I went to see him. 'Not everything happens as it must or should happen as we expect them to'. It's like a reverse of what I said years ago."
"Couldn't that have just been a coincidence?"
"It's hard to believe in coincidences when you have an Eva that shouldn't function without an order-working core working for a little boy that's not supposed to be little…but does…and is."
-x-
The Demoness looked out at the city below her feet, barely able to hold her excitement back until the stroke of midnight. Just a few more minutes away, and then nothing could hold her back.
"Oh, so many immortals to behead and so little time," she uttered, raising up her sword. "An eternity spent waiting for this glorious moment. Wandering in and out of failed civilizations that lacked the necessary means to endure like I did. Unworthy men and women have taken this world and turned it into a desolate wasteland upon which to thrive on. With the power of the Prize, I will wipe this realm clean and make it mine for eternity."
Beep-beep! Her cell phone went off to signal that it was now midnight.
There was now nothing holding any of the immortals back from the full power of the Gathering. And The Demoness had every intention of becoming the last of the immortals.
"There can be only one!" She shouted, and jumped off the rooftop she was on, going after the first immortal she laid her eyes on for their Quickening. "Ah-ha-ha!"
To be Continued…
A/N: Twenty immortals, but only nineteen will be playing the Game…and only one will be left standing. But who will be the one?
