Neon Genesis Evangelion:
The Darkness Emerges
By Doffman
Well, after a very long break, I'm back on working on this fan fic. The reason I've been putting it off for so long is that Shinji's section is going to take a lot of doing, as it cuts out a huge part of the story, starting from where Chapter 31 left off. I really haven't been able to pop out a page a day anymore either, because, though I don't think I have writers block, I may have a dam in there somewhere that lets it trickle out a bit at a time…
Prologue:
"Yuu, Diana, I'd like to thank you for what you've done for us." Yuuhi said, gripping Mina's hand firmly. "You see, we decided…"
"That we're going away together." Mina said cheerfully. "You see, Yuuhi was offered a job at the Globe, and he wouldn't take it because…"
"Then I'd be leaving Mina." Yuuhi said, equal joy in his voice. "So Mina decided that she would break up with me to make me go, but…"
"When you guys came along, we used you to get back together." Mina said, her cheer fading. "We feel bad for how we treated you, and how we used you, so…" Mina and Yuuhi bowed slightly.
"Gomen nasai." They said at the same time. Both Asuka and Shinji stood there, wide-eyed and silent.
"I realize now, Yuu, that I picked you to make Yuuhi jealous because you look so much like Yuuhi." Mina said. "Even your names are similar. When I realized that, I realized exactly how much I loved Yuuhi…" Mina said, resting her head on his shoulder.
Shinji and Asuka stood there and blinked.
"Well…" Shinji said.
"What…?" Asuka asked.
"I really hope we can keep in touch, guys. We'll call you when we make it to Britain." Yuuhi said, walking past them and waving his good-byes.
***
Harper sat and waited, looking for an opening. Shinji was standing in front of the school, and students kept getting in the way of his shot, so he had to wait a while.
"Remember this, Harper." Kaji said, holding out the rifle. "This is very important. If you are given four bullets, you are expected to take out four targets. When you are a sniper, you can't miss."
"Why do I have to learn this?" Harper complained.
"You most likely won't be on a sniper mission, since you've got a desk job, but just in case we need you, you need to be trained." Kaji said, shoving the rifle into his grasp.
"Gotta concentrate…" Harper slapped himself in the face. He gripped onto the rifle again, only to find that he couldn't hold the rifle steady. He took out the pack of tranquilizers given him, and injected it to calm himself down, then returned to the rifle. Finally, an opening appeared, and he was ready.
"Good bye, Shinji." Harper said, aiming the sniper rifle for the base of his neck. Just as he pulled the trigger, however, Yuuhi stepped in the line of fire. "Damn!" Harper shouted as the bullet sailed from the gun with not a sound but a sharp whistle of air.
***
The bullet whistled through the air, unbeknown to anyone. The bullet connected with the skull of the boy, hitting him in the temple. The sheer velocity of the bullet, along with the weakness of that portion of the skull, allowed the bullet to sail strait through, allowing it to hit its predestined target as well…
And yet the bullet stopped, milliseconds before piercing Shinji's skin.
Everything had stopped. TIME had stopped…
And Shinji was left to stand there, wondering why everyone had stopped moving…
He turned to see a bullet which had just smashed through his friend's temple, floating in mid-air, in a direct path for the base of his neck…
A bright flash of light reflected off the bullet at which he stared, and when the blinding glare was gone, there was only darkness.
Well, now. That was quite surprising. I wonder what would have happened if that bullet would have hit you… Hmm… Let's find out, shall we…?
And what followed for Shinji was a terrible vision of things to come… So terrible… playing themselves over and over…
Chapter 36
Shinji's Awakening
Make it stop… Please…
You don't want to see anymore? Are you sure? Don't you want to see the part where Rei is decapitated again? That was neat how Allen rolled her head to Drac like a bowling ball, wasn't it?
No… No more… Please…
Perhaps we could return to the part where Asuka kills Misato. That was a really good one. I hear being stabbed in the gut is a really painful way to die. So is slitting your wrists. Too bad Asuka only felt the pain of it, and didn't actually die.
Shut up…
I know! Let's watch the part where Asuka hangs herself! That was the best one, I think. She was calling out to you, Shinji. She wanted you to return to her, but you couldn't, so she tried to go to you. Because you couldn't be there for her, she couldn't handle life. Sad in a way.
Stop it… Make it stop…
I can't do that, Shinji. Only you can make it stop. I don't have that power. I'm just showing you what will happen if that bullet hits you…
The blank nothingness faded away instantly, to reveal the scene in front of the school. But nothing was moving. A bullet had just found its way through Yuuhi's temple, and pieces of brain matter trailed after the bullet that was mere centimeters from his face.
Shinji followed the trajectory of the bullet to its source, and as he looked, he found himself floating towards the building that the sniper was perched upon. The sniper was none other than David Harper.
A boy came floating down from the sky, a pair of gray wings slowing his descent, the only moving thing other than Shinji himself. "Well, now that you've seen what will happen if you die here, it's about time to see what happens if we let things play again, what do you think?" The boy asked, touching down lightly on the ground.
"Who are you…?" Shinji asked quietly. The boy made an extravagant bow, smiling slightly.
"I am the Angel of Death for this World of the Damned. My celestial name is Asmodeus, however, here I have been referred to as Jacob. Merely an Angel of Death, the lowest of the low in the hierarchy of Angels, I believe. But I do believe I have been enjoying this job thus far."
"You enjoy tormenting people…?" Shinji glared at the boy, bitterness dripping from the words.
"Tormenting? Is that what you think I'm trying to do?" Jacob asked, amused to the point of a soft laughter. "Heaven forbid! Though it is rather entertaining to see you squirm and mutter pleas for me to stop, that is not the purpose of me showing you those things."
"I don't see any other purpose…" Shinji muttered. Jacob gestured back to the school, to the scene, where another Shinji stood with his back to the bullet.
"You see that? At this exact point and time, in this very moment, everything hangs in the balance. At this one point and time, everything is hanging by a thread, a strand of hope named Ikari Shini." Jacob replied simply. "You've seen what will happen if you die here, a few milliseconds from now. Even then, it was YOU who decided what happened afterwards.
"You see Shinji, you are the one who is meant to stop all this. You are the Zenith of this world. No matter what, without you, this world will set. Even Dracan, who is but a sad copy of you, could not save this world. You have seen this. But where he failed, you may yet succeed."
"A copy of me…?" Shinji asked, eyes widening. "What do you mean?"
"Well, I guess there's no point in keeping Kaoru's and Bren's little secret now, is there?" Jacob shrugged. "You were supposed to be sent here, your soul was to come again, to take the chosen of your race away from it all, and the ones left were supposed to be in pain and suffering on this planet.
"But your soul, being the all loving, all forgiving thing it is, wanted to save ALL of humanity, even the ones who fell short of God's expectations. You asked Him if there was any way to stop it. You asked Him if there was any way to save ALL of them.
"God, however, wanted them to make the CHOICE to go to Heaven, and wanted to give them the CHOICE to believe in him. For it is God's belief that denying his creation choice was the ultimate evil, something that he could not do.
"So, knowing that Satan would come again, and knowing how vain Adam had become, he sent Adam, along with 10,000 of God's Children, back to the earth, to try to save them, along with one other."
"What one other…?" Shinji asked, swallowing hard, knowing the answer.
"He sent his son, the son of God, to guide his flock of 10,000." Jacob said, pausing before saying, reluctantly, "He sent you, Shinji."
"JESUS CHRIST!" Shinji screamed at the top of his lungs, eyes wide with shock.
"Exactly." Jacob shrugged.
"That's not what I meant!" Shinji yelled, trying to squeeze something out of his head that actually made sense with his hands. "You're telling me…. That I, Shinji Ikari, am the Son of God!?"
"That is exactly what I am telling you, but I also told you a lot more than that, if you had been listening." Jacob shrugged. "You're the one who wanted to save the world of non-believers. For you, God threw away his prophecy, because you CHOSE to try and save those nonbelievers. To deny this choice, the choice of his Son, would have been Evil."
"So it's MY fault that all of that is going to happen!?" Shinji asked, panicked.
"If you CHOOSE to let it happen, Shinji, then yes." Jacob shrugged at this, leaning against Harper's frozen body. "God gave you the power of choice, Shinji, because that's what you asked for. Even in those two other possibilities, it was you who chose the one who would determine man's fate, because you will have chosen for it to be someone other than yourself."
"What do you mean? What am I choosing? What would I be choosing myself to do!?" Shinji cried out shakily, not comprehending what he must do. To this, Jacob merely sighed, making a hand gesture that left glowing trails of light after it.
"You see? This is why Kaoru didn't want to be the one to tell you, and neither did Bren. You'd get all flustered and start asking questions that have already been answered, start screaming at the one who told you to answer them, over and over again, and nothing really gets accomplished other than getting in a shouting match with the Son of God, something that isn't thought all that proper up in heaven." Jacob grinned, sarcasm dripping from his voice.
"This isn't funny! Just tell me what the hell is going on!" Shinji demanded. Jacob sighed again, his glowing hand drawing symbols in the air.
"I think I'll just awaken you, and then you can find your own answers. It will be a lot easier. Besides. I have places to go, people to kill and whatnot…" The symbols began glowing a bright white flashing the maybes and the 'might's in his head over and over again, watching his friends die, watching the world die, watching the pain and suffering of the entire world compact into visuals that take up the span of one second, played over and over again.
Stop it… I don't want to see… No…
I can't make it go away, Shinji. Only you can.
Make it stop… Make it STOP!
The images crashed against his very consciousness, assaulting his very soul, until finally, one image stood out in the torrent of blood and death. Asuka hung by her neck in her closed, the look of death spread across her face, her body swinging back and forth slightly as a small trail of blood slid down her chin.Seeing this, seeing the woman that he loved in such a state, sent Shinji over the edge…
"STOOOOOOOOOOOP!" Shinji cried at a barrier of white light, an AT Field, shielded him, sending the bullet ricocheting harmlessly away. Shinji fell to his knees on the school steps as the body of his friend, Yuuhi, collapsed on top of him, and school children screamed at the top of their lungs, running in all directions.
"Yuuhi!" Mina cried, dropping to her knees next to Shinji and Yuuhi, taking him up in her arms. "No…. No… Don't die… We were supposed to run away together… We were supposed to be happy…" Tears flowed freely from the girls eyes as she pressed her face into Yuuhi's chest. "Why…? Why did this happen…?"
"Because… They… Wanted me dead…" Shinji muttered softly, brain matter and blood splashed across his face.
"Yuu…? They wanted… YOU dead…?" Mina whispered quietly, softly. "It's because they were trying to kill you that he is dead…?"
"I… I think… I can… I think I can help him…" Shinji stammered softly under his breath. Asuka, who had been standing there, gaping for the past several minutes, took this time to speak.
"Shinji… Yuuhi's been shot in the head… You're just an Eva Pilot. You're not God." Asuka put a hand on his shoulder. Shinji nodded, raising his hands in front of him, palms up.
"Maybe not, Asuka… But I'm close enough…" Shinji muttered, and his hands began to glow a pure white light, so bright that Asuka had to look away. Shinji rested his hands on Yuuhi's forehead, and the light spread throughout the boy's body, and the wound in Yuuhi's head slowly began to close.
When the light faded away, the wound was gone, and they were alone on the steps; all the other children had fled. Suddenly, another bullet came down against the AT Field that Shinji had made, drawing his attention.
"Stop…" Shinji opened his eyes, which were glowing a searing white light.
***
"Damn!" Harper cursed as the bullet struck the boy in front of Shinji instead of Shinji himself. As the boy fell to the ground, Harper quickly rifled through the sniper rifle case, pulling out another bullet and loading it into the gun. Taking aim yet again, Harper fired, but this time, something strangely peculiar happened.
The bullet bounced of a bright white field around Shinji. When this happened, Shinji looked directly at him. His eyes glowed a pure white, and one look in those eyes told Harper that he was going to die if he continued. The eyes conveyed no threat, only a statement. A truth. He was being given a choice to run…
And Harper ran like a bat out of hell.
***
When Yuuhi opened his eyes, he found himself laying on a bed, Yuu's bed, in Yuu's room. Yuu sat in the corner, on the floor, with Diana directly behind him, arms wrapped around his waist, head resting on his shoulder, eyes closed.
Sitting in a chair by the door was a man, he assumed to be Yuu's father, with a pistol in hand, a shotgun leaning against the wall.
On the other side of the room was a woman, frantically talking on a cellphone to someone as she paced back and forth, and at the side of the bed was Mina, her head resting on the side of the bed as she had fallen asleep.
"Welcome back to the world of the living, kid." The man said, noting that Yuuhi had awakened. "Make yourself useful. Catch." The man threw Yuuhi the pistol he was holding, taking up the shotgun. Yuuhi held the pistol in his hands, staring at it for a few seconds.
"Um… I'm not good at shooting, sir… The last time I shot used a gun, it was a BB gun, and I shot myself in the foot…" Yuuhi muttered quietly. The woman on the phone swiftly took the gun from Yuuhi, holding the phone away from her head only long enough to scold the man about underage firearm usage.
"Ah, it doesn't matter." The man sighed. "So. I hear you died. How did it feel?"
"I… Died?" Yuuhi raised an eyebrow inquisitively.
"Yup. You got a bullet right in your head. Quite messy, supposedly. How does it feel to be brought back to life?" the man asked. Obviously, Yuuhi thought, this man was insane.
"Um… Right. I feel fine. But not very safe with you holding a gun…" Yuuhi smiled nervously.
"Oh, don't worry. I'm a very precise shot." The man assured him, which scared him even more. Yuuhi merely nodded, smiling nervously, turning to the sleeping form of Mina.
Yuuhi didn't know what happened… He was supposed to be on a plane to Britain, with Mina at this time… Why was he in Yuu's room? Why was Yuu and Diana's entire family in the room with them? And why were they armed to the teeth…?
As he was thinking this, Mina slowly shifted, opening her eyes, and upon seeing Yuuhi awake, threw her arms around his neck and began crying into his chest. Yuuhi didn't know what was going on… But he needed to find out…
***
'I'm scared, Shinji…' Asuka told him, squeezing him tightly, trying to reaffirm the fact that he was actually there. 'I'm terrified…'
'What are you scared of, Asuka? I'm here, and I won't let anything hurt you. I will protect you, Asuka.' Shinji assured her, though it did not seem to comfort her.
'That's not what I'm scared of, Shinji…' Asuka muttered, tears forming in her eyes.
'Then what are you scared of?' Shinji asked.
'I'm… I'm afraid… That you aren't MY Shinji…' Asuka confessed, holding him even tighter. 'You've been changing, Shinji… Slowly and surely, yes, but you're different now than you were when we met… And I'm afraid… That you're not the same Shinji that I fell in love with… I'm scared that you're something else now… And that frightens me more than anything else…'
'Asuka… You don't need to worry… I'm still your Baka Shinji, and I will always be. I… I believe I am now MORE of the one you fell in love with than I was then…'
'What do you mean…? I don't understand…'
'I don't understand this myself, Asuka… Right now, I'm feeling around, blindly in the dark, trying to make up from down… But… Asuka, I'm still Shinji… And I still love you more than anything on this earth… So… Please don't cry…'
***
"What do you MEAN you're going!? You're staying right here!" Misato bellowed at Shinji, who was by the door, holding tightly to Asuka's hand.
"I need to talk to someone. Besides, you guys will be fine without me here. I'm the one they're after." Shinji grinned slightly, his voice taking the old, 'nervous Shinji' tone.
"Then we can call whoever you want to talk to, and have them meet us at NERV! You can't go running off on your own, where you will most likely be killed!" Misato crossed her arms, glaring at Shinji.
"I won't be going alone, because I'll be taking Asuka with me. And NERV holds no sway over the person I wish to speak with. Don't worry about me. At this point, I don't NEED an EVA to survive an N2 mine anymore." Shinji scratched the back of his head nervously.
"What is THAT supposed to mean, Shinji!? It's not like you're God or anything! Shinji, you could DIE! Today proves that! And I can't let that happen!"
"I have a few questions, if you don't mind…" Yuuhi interrupted Misato's screams with the clearing of his throat and a brief inquiry in a completely calm voice. "Who is Shinji, who is Asuka, why did someone try to shoot Yuu-kun, why is everyone saying that I died, and most importantly, WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!?!?!?" Yuuhi screamed, loosing composure at the end of his long list of questions. Shinji took the liberty of answering them.
"Well, my name is really Ikari Shinji, Diana's name is really Asuka Langley Sohryu, people are trying to shoot me because they think I'm a threat to the future, and everyone is saying you died because you actually DID die." Shinji took a deep breath at the end.
"If I died, then how come I'm alive right now!?" Yuuhi raised an eyebrow in disbelief.
"Because… I… Brought you back…" Shinji admitted reluctantly. Yuuhi, at this point began to laugh.
"Oh, yeah! Right! Seriously! This is a really good joke, guys! Hilarious! You even got Mina in on it! Great setup!" Yuuhi guffawed. Shinji sighed, resuming his argument with Misato, and ending it at the same time.
"Well, Misato, I would love to explain it all to you, but I don't really have the time. Asuka and I are leaving. And who knows. If the world doesn't end, then maybe we'll be laughing about this later…" Shinji sighed heavily, looking to Asuka as if to ask if she was prepared. She nodded to him, indicating she indeed was.
"Shinji, you are NOT stepping through that door!" Misato growled.
"You're right, Misato. I'm not." Shinji smiled slightly as his body seemed to be disintegrated right in front of her, along with Asuka's, in a brilliant flash of light.