Creation began on 11-02-15
Creation ended on 05-16-16
Neon Genesis Evangelion
An Ancient Guardian: On Dragon Wings
Through an old telescope he had found on the streets on the salvaged Washington place, Shinji saw the Angel known as Shamshel, and immediately recalled his memory of facing her. And he recalled the difficulty met with adjusting to a life under the thrall of NERV…and it just made him angry that he had been viewed as such a commodity in a life with no real future as he sat on the tall hill.
"I might've been the initial cause of Sachiel's demise," he expressed, "but I can prevent this messenger from paying an unnecessary price by keeping NERV at bay."
Taking his sword, he cut through the fabric of space and jumped through the schism.
-x-
"…So far, that's all we have on it," Misato informed Asuka, as she and Unit-02 arrived on the damaged coastal area just within viewing range of the Angel. "Until we know what it's up to, do not engage it."
Armed with a rifle, the redhead made sure she could have a shot at the Angel if it made a move that indicated hostility.
Suddenly, the Angel, no longer swimming in circles, shot like a bullet towards the land!
Asuka reacted to this change as a hostile and opened fire at the enemy. The bullets, however, just seemed to bounce right off the Angel's hide.
Shamshel emerged from the water and began hovering over the land, probably a good two feet, barely touching the ground. It unleashed a pair of energy-charged whips upon Unit-02, slicing the rifle in half.
"Shiest!" Asuka cursed, resorting to her Prog. Knife now.
But before she could retaliate, something happened in the air above them. Some sort of rip in the sky, like someone had taken a big knife and cut a hole into the fabric of space.
"What is that?" She asked Mistato.
"We have no idea," the woman responded.
Something then emerged from the hole in the sky. Some sort of…
"Gott im Himmel," Asuka gasped, never expecting to see a creature that was redder than the Angel was right this moment.
-x-
Returning from the dimension he traversed to in search of aid, Shinji had returned in the nick of time to find the Angel still in one piece as he held onto the nape of Osiris, the Sky Dragon of the the Egyptian God Monsters who ranked under Exodia in terms of power. The sight of the red Eva brought up another series of painful memories that never were, from his near-death experience. Mainly due to the aggressive girl that piloted it, always cruel to others, always pining after a man with an unshaven look. Oh, how he now resented how much people invested so much of themselves in these abominations to the point where it's all they believe they have because they have never tried to invest in other interests.
"Osiris," he uttered to the Sky Dragon, "we need to settle this without a need for death."
"Rrraaurgh," Osiris growled, wrapping itself around the ruins of a building. "Grrurgh!"
The Angel looked at the dragon, never seeing such a creature before, and noticed how a member of the Lilim species was riding atop it. There was a feeling of power and freedom…but also a feeling of acceptance, like this creature was willing to follow the human.
Suddenly, the blue gem on Osiris glowed and unleashed a wave of energy that spread around the entire surrounding environment, affecting everything with a blue tint.
Even Unit-02 was exposed by the energy.
"What was that, Misato?" Asuka questioned.
"We're trying to figure out what happened," Misato responded.
"I only ask that you hear me out, Angel of the Day," they heard Shinji's voice say to the Angel. "Speak to me."
The Angel stood up.
You Lilim, a female voice spoke up, sounding as though it was inside their minds. You know not what you do. You feel that the world revolves around you. You're scattered, divided, a plague. Despite your efforts to show that you're capable of change, you've not changed one bit in the time following the disgrace you've inflicted upon us. You captured our father, and we demand that he be returned.
"Your father? Adam. I can't speak for all of mankind when I speak for myself, but if he's returned to you…will your feud with the people cease?" Shinji asked the Angel.
-x-
"…The Third Child?" Ritsuko gasped.
"He's trying to reason with an Angel?" Kaji questioned. "And on some sort of dragon?"
"The biggest one I've ever seen," added Misato.
If he is returned, there would be no need for further conflict, they heard the Angel say.
"Then I'll make sure he's returned to you, Angel of the Day," they heard Shinji say to it.
Our father…returned by you? And how do you intend to do that?
"I will find a way."
And you would do this because?
"I have gone through the process of metaphorical rebirth…and I'm seeing a world that was maimed by people deluded with the desires for unifying all souls for selfish reasons…but I've removed certain requirements to ensure that such an attempt cannot be achieved. No one shall be united in life as they can be in death."
And you would willingly go against your kind?
"I've already gone against them by turning away from them. My parents, may the gods have mercy upon their souls, the people they worked for, whom I'll never echo, my relatives, whom gave me nothing but apathy, and I have no place to call my home. I am a nomad, one that has no home. I am a ronin, a samurai without a master. I turned away from a future where I was cursed to live forever…with absolutely no reason to live."
Then the return of our father shall fall upon you. You do that, and your kind, however scattered, however infectious and self-destructive…will be spared to go on until you end up destroying yourselves. You fail…and I won't be the only one that you will face.
-x-
Asuka felt disgusted by this happening. That the Third Child, a former cripple, attempting to negotiate with an enemy, and to save people he wasn't all that associated with, anymore. It…it felt disgraceful.
-x-
Shamshel, once she was done speaking to Shinji, turned away and returned to the sea, disappearing beneath the waves.
Shinji, setting foot off of Osiris onto a hillside, turned to face the Egyptian God Monster and bowed his head in gratitude.
"Your help was greatly appreciated, Lord Osiris," he praised the dragon. "Until we meet again."
Osiris then took to the sky, disappearing behind the clouds.
I have to find Adam and return him to his children, Shinji thought, now needing to come up with a course of action to find the missing Seed of Life. I gotta get help from those that specialize in tracking hard-to-find items and people…and I may need to build up my arsenal to better ensure that nothing severely disastrous happens later.
Thud! He heard large footsteps, and knew that Unit-02 was approaching.
-x-
"God, just look at him," went Hyuga, as the video feed from Unit-02 showed Shinji with a sword unlike anything ever seen or engineered before. "He looks like he could take on a S.W.A.T. team with that thing. With that creature that looked like a dragon, he could've probably took on Unit-02."
Even Yui saw him and pondered what he was thinking about right now. Or, rather, what he wasn't thinking about. And then, there was still how he was able to have access to these creatures that rivaled the Angels, but without the threat to mankind.
"The Third Child is leaving," said the Second Child informed them, as Shinji turned to walk away from the advancing Unit-02. "Permission to apprehend."
"Permission granted, but don't be hard on him," Misato obliged to the girl, and Yui wondered if Ms. Soryu was even capable of being soft on her son.
-x-
Shinji didn't have time for this, and ran down the hill away from Unit-02.
SLAM! One of its hands reached down and missed him as he ran towards the trees.
I think I know just the creature to distract her, he thought as he reached for his sword.
-x-
Asuka was about to clear away the trees when she saw something rising from under them.
It looked like a person, but they wasn't the Third Child. They resembled some sort of doll, but without a face…and a girl-like doll face on its right shoulder and boy-like doll face on its left shoulder, and wearing a brightly-colored robe.
"What the heck is that thing?!" She questioned, watching as it raised its arms up and began waving them slowly in front of it. "What…"
Her perception started to feel off. Instead of this creature that just appeared, she saw someone she hadn't seen in many years.
"Mama?"
-x-
"What the Hell is this?" Ritsuko questioned, seeing exactly what the Second Child was seeing right now.
And so was the rest of Central Dogma present. Instead of a strange creature with no face, there was a woman in a hospital gown with long hair the same shade of red as Asuka's. And then, just as they all had a good look at her, her image was replaced with the faceless creature, which then disappeared from sight. In its place was a glowing message that read, "SHINJI HAS FLED THE SCENE TO SAFETY."
"What the shiest?!" Asuka demanded, and realized that she had been taken advantage of by the Third Child in order to escape. "Damn that boy! Damn him!"
-x-
Stepping out of the rift and entering the damaged town of a neighboring island in the Japanese archipelago, Shinji dropped to his knees as he took a short rest. While he might've been out of line when he had the Illusionist Faceless Mage show Asuka the illusion of what it was that her heart desired most in life, he promised himself that it was the only time he would use trickery like that to get away from an enemy like that. He wasn't even sure what it was she saw, as the mage's illusions were unique to whoever was exposed to its magic, meaning that while one person could've seen something they feared most, another person with them could've saw something else that was entirely different, either feared or desired.
"Find Adam, Shinji," he told himself. "Find Adam."
-x-
"…We can't find the Angel," Hyuga informed Misato, after two hours of being unable to detect the blue blood type of the Angel.
"There's no trace of it," added Shigeru.
"The nerve of that boy!" They all heard Asuka shouting as she returned to Central Dogma. "Is he trying to start something?!"
"Not logically," went Rei, expressing her logic of what the boy was up to. "He somehow managed to communicate with an Angel and discovered what they were after, and then attempted to bargain with the Angel, successfully ending a battle before it could start."
"And yet, it sounds like he's selling out on mankind by helping the enemy!"
That did sound like that was true, but it was hard to know if it was true. The boy had decimated NERV, but he stood up to an Angel in place of the Eva, and not because he had some sort of debt to the paramilitary agency; he only did it because he cherished the world, not the agency.
-x-
"The Fourth Angel was not disposed of," SEELE 12 announced to the council.
"Enough is enough," went SEELE 04. "We need to eliminate the Third Child, immediately!"
"Gather the best," expressed SEELE 01 to the rest of them. "Find the boy…and reduce him to nothing but a memory that nobody will recall."
-x-
Diving further and further in these nonexistent memories provided by his near-death experiences, Shinji, taking refuge in an abandoned building, was able to ascertain the person that had been most likely responsible for Gendo having obtained Adam in at least one other life that was a thing of the past.
"Ryoji Kaji," he uttered, holding his left palm up and conjuring a fiery projection of a man in his early-thirties with an unshaven face. "If anything, you were part of the direct cause that caused the Third Impact and Instrumentality Project that didn't have to take place. If you had access to Adam and was able to hand him over to a bastard like Gendo, then you knew where he was, right from the start. Your stupidity will be your doom…but if you help me keep my word to the Angels, you may have a shot at redemption. Peace for all through the forgiveness of damaged hearts and souls…and grand redemption through the rebirth of the maimed world."
To be contined…
A/N: It was Osiris/Slifer that won the original poll because he got two votes!