Creation began on 04-11-20
Creation ended on 04-11-20
Neon Genesis Evangelion
I Dream of Evangelion: Confessions of Danger
A/N: Pema realizes that there's still potential danger to Shinji, prompting her to act.
Sleep eluded Pema in the dead of night as she realized something only an hour after sending Gendo back to the Geo-Front: She might've disposed of Adam, but she left another threat behind at NERV HQ. Even if the people couldn't exploit the progenitor of the Angels, there was still something within their possession that signaled an equal opportunity to threaten the world, and by extension, threaten Shinji's life, so long as they still had possession of. Turning to her left and looking at the sleeping boy beside her, Pema sighed heavily, feeling the doubt that she had protected him from all manner of dangers lurking within the shadows of the unknown.
Absorbing Adam into the Servant Beast has revealed the knowledge of his equal, Lilith, she thought as she got up from off the floor. NERV still has Lilith in their possession, and knowing that they used her just as they used Adam means that they can still hurt Shinji if they go too far. I can't let them hurt Shinji, no matter how indirectly the danger is.
Feeling the change upon her as she turned away, she knew she was doing the right thing, which was to protect Shinji, but it felt as though she were betraying him, too, just by leaving him again in the silence of the night. But if she didn't do this, she would be failing him. She would fail him and it'd be her fault.
I'm sorry, Shinji, she thought as she vanished from the temple interior, heading back to the Geo-Front. I'm doing this to protect you from people like your father, from NERV, from the Angels.
After she left, Shinji turned in his sleep and felt alone on the floor.
"Pema," he uttered in his sleep, his right hand searching for the body of the girl that wasn't there, anymore. "Pema…Pema."
Otomo awoke briefly from her slumber and noticed the absence of Pema faster than Shinji had, but fell back to sleep again.
-x-
She was somewhere she had never been before, but knew it was within the Geo-Front, standing in front of a large, pool-like setting full of a yellowish-orange fluid that spanned across half of the entire chamber. Also in front of her was a colossal being that had been nailed to a large, red metal cross, wearing a strange mask with seven eyes.
"Lilith," the Servant Beast uttered, tilting its head to the left upwards. "Look at what they've done to you, Lilith. But you've been here all this time, waiting for someone to trigger the ultimate reckoning after finding you. How patient you've been…but how cruel you've been, as well, knowing that all in existence would be condemned by the reckoning. But I can't let that happen. If I let that happen, I'd be failing the one who set me free from the darkness. I'd be condemning him to an inescapable fate…just because I left you alone here. So…it's time you took your place among the others in the collective. Never free…but never a threat to the world we live in."
The Servant Beast opened its mouth and, like a black hole, began to suck in the massive being in front of it.
I will protect you from the danger this one will bring, Shinji, Pema thought, seeing Lilith begin to move on the cross. I will keep you safe from those that would hurt you.
Lilith, her left arm pried loose from the cross, was now partially dangling in midair between the cross and the Servant Beast of the Djinn's black hole-like portal from within its mouth, kept from falling in by her right arm being still pinned, but even it began to loosen.
"Grrr…grrraurgh!" The Servant Beast growled, applying more force in the suction.
Lilith's right arm restraint finally gave and the colossal being fell into the vortex and disappeared in the darkness with the Servant Beast, which then collapsed on the ground, turning back into Pema as the danger was no longer present.
"I…did…it," she panted as she was on her palms and knees, looking at her right arm, seeing the black jewel embedded in the palm had enlarged further, becoming the size of a half-cut orange.
Then, she fell to her right side and onto her back, exhausted.
No Adam, no Lilith, no end of the world, she thought, looking up at the dark ceiling. I'm coming back to you, Shinji.
She blinked…and was back inside the temple, as if she hadn't left at all.
-x-
The door to Terminal Dogma opened…and Gendo, responding to a silent alarm in his office alerting him of a breach within the chamber of Lilith, entered…and saw that Lilith was no longer there.
"No!" He yelled in anger; he knew only one creature that could've done this…and knew all bets were off now that the last line had been crossed. They're gonna pay! I swear they're gonna pay!
-x-
Shinji awoke to the next morning, escaping a violent nightmare about Pema and NERV, rising up from his sheets and looking down at Pema and Otomo.
"It hurts, Shinji," he recalled her telling him in his nightmare, chained to the floor in a room in the Geo-Front, being pumped with chemicals by scientists whilst in her Servant Beast form due to him being in danger. "IT HURTS!"
He yelled for them to stop what they were doing to her, but his father just ignored him, leaving him to rip the tubes out of Pema's neck and waist before some men in black suits could come and remove him from the room.
"Shinji…Shinji…" He heard her say his name in her sleep. "Please, Shinji… I can't… I do want you…but I'm cursed."
His eyes widened; he hadn't expected to hear her say anything like that to him…or about him.
"You make me happy," she continued to express, no doubt dreaming about something involving the two of them. "You're the only person that has ever…made me feel…but they'd forbid it, no matter how much we wanted to. I'll…keep you safe… No, don't leave me… Shinji…daisuki…"
Now, this…he hadn't expected to hear her say at all, even by accident or in her sleep. To hear her say that…she loves him…was the first time he had ever heard anyone tell him such. Nobody had ever told him that they loved him before, even just platonically. But Pema…even if it was only in her dreams and not directly towards him…was something that Shinji hadn't expected her to say…even after they had kissed a few times. He got up and stepped outside onto the steps of the temple exterior, needing to try and forget that he heard her say anything.
"Shinji…daisuki…" Her voice echoed in his mind.
But does she really? He wondered, still wanting to forget about it. Does she really love me?
To be continued…
A/N: I was bored and couldn't sleep, so I was relieved to have written this while the motivation was still fresh in my mind. I'm glad I wrote this, and now comes the challenge of how to progress it further. One thing's for certain: Now Gendo and SEELE are indefinitely screwed.
