What Measure Forgiveness?
+++++ Den Haag, Netherlands.
Standing before dozens of cameras, hundreds of witnesses, and more importantly, three judges, the lead prosecutor for the most observed, most impactful, most important trial in all of human history made his closing statements, "As you have seen, Your Honors, the former Commander of NERV-Tokyo Gendo Ikari stands accused, accused of Genocide under Article Six, accused of Crimes Against Humanity under Article Seven, accused of War Crimes under Article Eight and violations of the Geneva Conventions under Article Three, accused of Crimes of Aggression under Article 8, and last but certainly not least, accused of Offenses Against the Administration of Justice under Article Seventy. He has acted in concert with the known criminals from SEELE, he has embezzled and misappropriated funding intended to feed and house the victims of their crimes, he has flouted every rule, every law, every moral or ethical boundary intended to prevent exactly what has come to pass! Our evidence has been meticulously presented, our witnesses have each proven the veracity of their statements, the very Earth itself bears the scars of his crimes. What we do here today, we do to prove that there is nobody above the law. Nobody the rules do not matter for. We can, and we must, uphold justice here if we ever again wish to look upon a criminal and hold them accountable for their actions. If we are to ever look upon a simple thief or a terrible murderer and say that the law matters. We do not deny that he has been cooperative. We do not deny that he has done so despite it being in his best interest to remain silent. We beg that you recognize that his actions after being caught should only mitigate the punishment, not abrogate his guilt. Thank you, Your Honors, and may God almighty guide your deliberations."
The Wanderer, sitting towards the back of the cavernous room with his extended family around him, snorted and rolled his eye up to the ceiling at the last of the lead prosecutor's statements. The theatrics involved were for the cameras, of course, but he was fairly certain that any entity the man might call 'God' couldn't care less about the opinions of three unimportant mobile delusion generators regarding a fourth unimportant mobile delusion generator. Still, as Emperor, he had the responsibility to at least attempt to appear impartial and he accepted Maya's light tap of reprimand against his knee for what it was. Sorry, Kitten.
Ireul smirked, her opinions well in line with his own. I often wonder what humanity would think of us if they realized exactly how obedient our Puppy really was.
"Your Honors," the lead attorney for Gendo announced in a voice that held both awe and solemnity at once, "we ask that…the court accept something slightly irregular."
The lead judge raised an eyebrow, not anticipating anything that would disrupt the orderly proceedings intended to instill calm throughout the remnants of humanity. "Tread carefully, counselor. We will not look kindly on any shenanigans today."
"No shenanigans, Your Honor. Simply a request that we allow a Member Nation to speak on our behalf, under Article Thirty. The…The Emperor of The Ikari Empire has asserted his right to offer final defense."
One of the associate judges frowned. "I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the particular clause in Article Thirty that would allow further statements from uninvolved parties."
Now with the undivided attention of every member of his family, The Wanderer smirked with amusement. Surprise. Unwinding himself from the bench he'd been seated upon, standing up to his full, titanic, height, he calmly addressed the judges on the other side of the room with his hands loose in his pockets, "A portion of Article Thirty was rewritten to account for my particular existence, Your Honor." Disappearing from the center of the row he was in, he placed himself on the broad central pathway to where the trial participants were standing, slowly walking in a non-threatening manner and moderating his tone so that the cameras all picked up what he was saying. "My Diplomat was rather insistent that since the Convention only referred to 'human' individuals that it be amended to also address those of us who, despite being present on Earth, are no longer fully human. One particular clause was added, despite my objection to it, that allowed for someone recognized as 'divine' to speak up in final defense of someone accused of crimes before this court."
All three judges were now, despite sitting on a platform well above the ground floor, forced to look slightly up into the eye of a man that they could not deny the divinity of. With his long, shock white, hair pulled back into a professional braid, and his eye filled with both an infinite amount of suffering and an infinite amount of love, he existed as the one man they would not deny that day. The lead judge motioned him closer, turning off the microphones so that they could confer with as much privacy as possible. "Your Majesty…please tell me you're not about to throw an enormous wrench into our proceedings."
"No wrenches, Your Honor. Just a reminder to people watching…and something of a diplomatic overture. I do apologize, honestly I do. This is your 'kingdom', so to speak, and I understand that I'm interfering in your court, but if I don't take this opportunity I believe we're going to have bigger problems in a few years to deal with."
The third judge, a woman with a persistent frown that did not indicate at all her true emotional state, leaned in close as well. "I don't see why we can't allow this, Jeb. He's the son of the accused, he's also a god. There's precedent for family giving the court information to help judge someone's actions by the light of their history, and even the prosecutors themselves begged that god might guide or deliberations."
The other associate judge coughed delicately, "I believe they were speaking in reference to the Judeo-Christian entity, invoking that particular Americanism."
"I promise to inform everyone if I happen to run into someone matching that description, Your Honor," The Wanderer assured him. "For right now, I can assure you that the only beings that are potentially more powerful than me within seventeen thousand gigaparsecs," his head tipped slightly back towards the benches holding his family, "are glaring daggers at my back for causing a scene without informing them."
The lady judge glanced back to the bench, then agreed with him, "They do look rather irritated. I really think we should allow this, Jeb. I read that amendment before the trial started, you know how I am about remaining up to date on such things."
'Jeb', the lead judge on this case, weighed the emperor's eye as he considered what to do. "So, there is something out there stronger than you?"
"Not that I know of, at least not that I've felt directly. My awareness has spread outwards after my fight against the previous holder of my office, and so far it's only reached seventeen thousand and twelve gigaparsecs in each direction. I can't speak to what's beyond that yet…I haven't seen it." The Wanderer shrugged slightly. "It's bad to lie to a judge in court and asserting something exists that I can't confirm would qualify as a lie."
"Which means there might be…what a time to live in." Sitting back and turning the microphones on once more, he announced in a properly judicial tone, "We'll allow the request. Please proceed, Your Majesty."
Taking a few steps back, and inclining his head in gratitude, he slowly turned his body to face the cameras. He was, by rule, supposed to be addressing the court. He was also, by rule, free to do whatever he so damn well pleased. The UN had made certain that was clear to everyone. The man that had been the father of this universe's version of Shinji Ikari was not his father. The woman that had entered Unit-01's core in this universe was not his mother. Despite those both being true, there was still something of a tacit bond between him and the man sitting there calmly awaiting what would come. Gendo Ikari had done what he had to, no matter how depraved, to serve two purposes: retrieve Yui Ikari and ensure that humanity survived. Even here, the man accepted what came of his choices and did not back down.
"Ladies and gentlemen, Gendo Ikari…is a man." He paused, allowing the multiple meanings of the word to filter though people's prejudices. "A man who loved, a man who hated, and a man who felt cold indifference. Many men say, through poetry, through action, through prayer, that they would do anything to protect their families. Suffer any burden. Accept any task. Walk through fire and frost, naked and unafraid. Few are actually capable of putting proof to their claims." Slowly walking to his left, he kept his pacing timed to his speech. "Right now, in what's left of Barrancos, Portugal, there's a young man declaring his unending love to a young woman he's attempting to sleep with. Speaking to the depths of that love, declaring that he'll face her father unafraid if she becomes pregnant with his child. He won't." A sad shake of his head, his braid swaying mournfully. "If she agrees, he'll likely never speak to her again. He just wants the conquest. The inner satisfaction that he was able to impose his power over her, that he was 'good enough' to convince her. Further east, in Lichtenstein, in the municipality of Schaan, a man is sitting in a doctor's office begging for help in providing for his wife's addiction to painkillers. He can't refuse his wife anything, despite knowing that what he's doing is killing her. He's not strong enough to tell her 'No', even to save her life.
"You might ask," he continued, "what relevance those things have to this trial. Why I would bring up people who have, or will, commit other crimes in my defense of Gendo Ikari." He stopped, once more dead center. Sweeping his gaze slowly across the audience, he made certain his words made the impact he wanted. "Because unlike those men, Gendo Ikari had the strength of conviction, the strength of will, to do everything he did. He said he would love Yui Ikari forever. He has never stopped loving her. He said he would do everything in his power to protect her. He has done everything in his power to protect her. When she died, a victim of SEELE's ambitions and her own drive to exist as a testament to mankind's existence well past the heat death of the universe, he swore he would do everything he could to bring her back to life." His eye landed on Gendo's. "He has done everything he could."
Gendo's song spoke of curiosity laced with surprise. He hadn't expected The Wanderer to be present for the trial at all, let alone to supposedly speak up in his defense. He had accepted his death, accepted that he was not long for the world, and accepted that justice had to be done for peace to be maintained.
Returning to his pacing, The Wanderer motioned airily with one hand before returning it to his pocket. "Everything he could do, and none of it was good enough to accomplish what he'd said he would do." He had the audience, now. Had them wrapped up in the tale of a man willing to kill everyone on Earth, everyone in the universe, for the woman he loved. "He did not, could not, know that Yui Ikari had been removed from Unit-01, the Purple Defender, the Evangelion. That her soul had returned to the Sea where all human souls eventually must go. That the driving force of Unit-01 had become me. With his attention so focused on returning her to life, he eschewed the son she'd given him. He left him, on a cold, dark, rainy morning with a man his son did not know. A man that, unbeknownst to him, was a pedophile. A rapist. A murderer. So fixated on his goals…he couldn't bear to look at his own son and see the woman that had been stolen from him by fate.
"Now, you might ask why I would so condemn him if my aim was to speak in his defense." He sighed out a laugh. "Because I am neither defending him, nor condemning him. I am explaining him." Stopping at the point furthest from Gendo, he gestured towards the man. "Love, ladies and gentlemen, love is what drove him to do the most terrible things. Love inspired him to acts of calculated depravity that make the worst serial murderers seem quaint in comparison. Love of a single woman set him on a path that might have ended with all of humanity combined in a single gestalt existence for the rest of time! The prosecution has made it seem this entire time as if his motivations were greed, or malice, or cold indifference when I assure you that at no point in time did he hold any of those feelings in his heart. He didn't care about the money, it was a tool to return Yui. He didn't hate the people who were killed so that Project E could move forward, they were obstacles on the path to return Yui. He wasn't indifferent to the tragedies of the world, because without a world that still held humanity upon it…there was nothing to bring Yui back to. Gendo Ikari has done, is doing, and will do everything in his power for the return of the only human being he ever truly loved…." The Wanderer looked down, earnest sorrow filling his voice as he drove home his final point. "The woman…that didn't love him enough in return to place him above her own selfish desires." Looking back to the three judges, he let them see in him the truth of everything. "Gendo Ikari is guilty, Your Honors. There can be no other verdict. But his guilt can, and should, be understood appropriately by the history books. What is done in the name of honest, and overwhelming, love…can be just as caustic as what is done in the name of hate." With another slight incline of his head, a gesture of respect for the humans that had the task of closing a dark chapter in humanity's book, The Wanderer slowly walked back to his family. He'd done what he set out to. This man wasn't his father, but he also wasn't the man everyone believed him to be.
What had been said, some few who heard had understood, was both an explanation and a warning. The Wanderer was a being that loved deeply, and that was something to be admired…and feared.