+++++ Hikawa Shrine. (Wednesday + 25)
Michiru sat with Haruka and Yukiko in the dining area, leaving the task of consoling Rei to the others. She had the most 'experience' with Shinji, and thereby had the best perspective to offer on the matter at hand. "He's giving up. Rei-chan's frustrations boiled over at the perfect time to remind him that everything around him has been hurting people. She shouldn't have phrased it the way she did, and he shouldn't have taken it the way he did, but both of them are still too young to have…polish."
"I'm still lost as to what happened with the tree-lady. She went in there to heal him, then 'fwoosh', Flamin' Hot Shinji." Haruka was rolling her fingers across the table, tempering her own eagerness to go and track Shinji down. "Now he's got those scars, and she's freaking the hell out about 'knowing the mind of the divine'. Is that not somehow causing this to get worse on us?"
Yukiko was sitting in lotus pose, rotating idly around all three axes half a meter above the table. "It didn't help, no. The issues, as your paramour so adeptly phrased, are not singular in nature. We are dealing with a series of explosions in the middle of a battle filled with other explosions all impacting a young man who has known nothing but explosions his entire life. Without a steady hand to guide him, he has decided to do what he believes is best. Since the explosions seemingly center on him, from his perspective, then if he goes somewhere else…."
"The explosions follow him, instead of hitting us." The tall Sailor for Uranus slammed her fist down on the table in frustration. "That ain't how this works."
"It is in a mind that is nearly too far gone, my love." Michiru reached over and laid her hand over the top of Haruka's fist. "I told you that changes were coming, and there was a reason that I was unconscious for so long. He needs someone to take control of him. I'm not thrilled that it's likely going to be Daphne, I feel she shouldn't have to do this so soon after losing Suzuhara-san, but if it ends up being her, I'm not going to lose sleep over it. She's an extremely kind woman, an extremely strong woman, and only two of the futures I saw where she had him in hand ended with Shinji…with The Wanderer destroying everything."
"Whoa, hold on." She turned to face her lady love fully. "You're not seriously advocating for our guy to be someone's puppet, right?"
"It is funny that you say 'our guy', as if you would give him what he needs." Yukiko stopped rotating, eyeing Haruka significantly. "She," her finger gestured towards Michiru, "would at least encourage him to accept her physical comforts. You have only ever truly enjoyed his presence for the joy it brings her. You like him, as a friend. This is not a negative thing. What he needs, more than anything, is a woman he can dedicate himself to heart and soul. A woman that, for the centuries it will take to undo his history of trauma and terror, will patiently smooth down those jagged spurs and ragged edges he has."
"We cannot expect him to suddenly change for the better, Haru-chan," Michiru supported most of Yukiko's position. "He has known nothing but pain, and every person that's reached out so far that he's accepted has either been killed or distracted. He doesn't trust Naoko-san enough, and he feels Sarah-chan is too young. Rei-chan is too young, and Mizore-san doesn't have the patience. I've come to believe that Chris-san would be a wonderful mentor for him, and were Shin-kun so inclined would make a perfect mate for him, but it is Shin-kun that won't accept the mentorship without a few decades of preparation. None of the others have the requisite rapport built for a burgeoning relationship based on the necessary power dynamics. At this point, it is either Daphne…or me."
"And out of love for you, she is not eager to take on the task." The small woman stood down upon the table, and planted her hands on her hips, leaning forward to pin Haruka's retort down before it could be voiced. "You. Do not. Love him. Like that. Even the smallest hint of jealousy would cause this whole issue to take millennia longer. He would loathe us for making you live a lie, and since the very thought of him and you laying like that makes you queasy, he would be right to castigate us!"
Haruka, never one to be cowed easily, slapped her hands on the table and shot upright to glare eye to eye with Yukiko. "If it meant fixing him, I'd suck it hourly without complaint. Who do you think is going to give her and I a child, huh? Sure as fuck isn't going to be Redfield. If she can't conceive with him, since there's no hospital to do it the artificial way anymore, I'm not going to shy away from spending some extra time with my favorite guy. Yeah, I'm gay, but that doesn't mean I'm not open-minded enough to try something else under the right circumstances. It 'makes me queasy' because I'm afraid of what it would mean for me and Michi-chan if we brought another person into our relationship like that. Because I'm afraid of what it would do to him if it caused even a minor fight between her and I. I know that Michi-chan and I can work through it, we're stronger than that. But could he? So don't you fucking tell me who I do and don't love, or how I do or don't love them."
A violent geyser of water shoved both parties away from one another, pressing them against opposing walls before letting up. Michiru calmly stood from her chair, regal and refined in her actions. "That will be enough. Daphne-san has taken the matter in hand, for the moment. If she can manage to soothe him enough to stop a terrible future, then we will do whatever we must to support her in that. For right now, we have other tasks to be about. She will let us know how she fares, and we will decide after we know more." Her left finger jabbed towards Haruka, silencing her, just as her eyes landed on Yukiko, silencing her. "We all know I am far more powerful than most people believe. Let us not force me to prove that might to restore peace in this household."
+++++ Deep underground, Australia. (Wednesday + 25)
The blinding hatred for life that Shinji had been consumed by had taken hours to fade. During that entire time, he had listened to Daphne explain in intimate detail what she had gone through trying to have both Reliqui and Elysium leave her and Suzuhara alone. How she had to, more than once, physically prevent Suzuhara from doing 'stupid things' in the name of her honor. How she had learned that men had a tendency to show love, not speak of love. Suzuhara would check the soil around her tree. He would make certain that the vehicle she rode in was well-maintained. Every act was a declaration of love for her, every statement of love that 'lesser women' would feel was dragged out of him was in fact a precious gift. He was pushing himself out of his comfort zone to try to be a better man, when all she wanted was for him to be the man he was.
She adored the way he was willing to get dirt all over his fur to make sure that there were no harmful insects burrowing around the roots of her tree. She loved that he spent hours checking the highest boughs for signs of rot or physical damage. She loved that he would check in with her, even on the longest missions away from her, to make sure that there wasn't anything she needed. She had become his world, not because he had none of his own, but because that was how he showed her that he wanted nothing more than to be her husband. Her last statement on the past came with a soft shrug and a sad smile, "His last act on this Earth was to buy Maria time to get me out of danger. He hadn't seen the chair strike me in the stomach, hadn't realized our daughter had been killed…he fought all three, all by himself…because he loved me."
He…was a very good man. Shinji felt the familiar weight of duty settle around his shoulders again, the fog of rage and disgust cleared away. I, uhm…I think I'm ok now.
Leaning forward from where she sat, she took off Unit-01's helmet again, leaving him blind. "I'm glad that you're willing to listen again. The only way I'm letting you loose, however, is if you swear to me that you will not leave here. I will trust the Laws to prevent you from acting in blind haste, since your reserves of willpower have been spent doing everything you can to keep us alive."
Shinji's jaw regained feeling, allowing him to speak aloud, "'Til she says that I may leave, to her person I must cleave." He didn't see her approach, and wasn't prepared for her lips to find his. The kiss wasn't fanatic, like many of the other women had given him, nor was it distant, like he'd thought it might have been. Instead, it was a simple display of both affection and gratitude.
Bumping her forehead against his playfully as she let the kiss go, she watched as his eyes began to focus on her with the greater precision she had gifted him with the kiss. "Thank you. I would like it if you took to heart the fact that I do not consider you a bad person for what just happened. It was not the wisest course of action, leaving with your temper hot, but it was done for exactly the reasons I have just been speaking of. You are a man, and while you have never been shown love, and have never been able to demonstrate love for another…you instinctually know how best to do so. By deed, not word."
He reabsorbed Unit-01, limbering his arms and legs as the paralyzing agent was removed from his body. Working his wrist in the opposing hand, flexing the digits to get rid of the last of the numbness, he sighed with irritation. "I wish I knew that was the truth. I wish I knew that love could actually exist."
"That would be why I came with you," she announced with a shrug. Picking her pack back up, settling it on her shoulders, she gestured towards the only path away from the cul-de-sac they were standing within. Once they were moving, at a slower pace than Shinji might like so that she could watch his balance as he recovered from her cheap shot, she continued, "Because of every woman back at that Shrine, of every other being living near our tree, I am the only one to whom you have a true promise of physical intimacy with. We, you and I, will have children someday. None of the others can say that with certitude, and should you wish it, none of the others will experience what you and I will. I am positive that love can blossom between anyone, at any time. I will show you myself that love exists."
The world underground was oddly comforting, to him. Hanging stalactites and rising stalagmites were evidence of some form of liquid being present in the area, and the breathability of the air itself meant that somehow oxygen was making its way through the cavern. He was being hugged by the Earth itself, his nerves settling further with the realization that everything was much quieter where he stood. "Would that be the right thing to do?"
"I'm not opposed to sharing your affections." She spoke matter-of-factly, "So long as the woman I would share them with is not a stain upon our honor." More confident in his movements, she laced her arms around his, floating along the ground at his side on a rolling carpet of lichen. "I will not allow my husband to sully our home with someone who is not committed to our family."
The question was out of his mouth before he thought better of it, "Would you have shared Suzuhara-san?"
"No." If she took offense at the query, she didn't show it. "You are not he, though. Nor is our situation comparable. Suzuhara was a great man, we agree on this. He was, however, a man. You are neither simply a man, nor are you simply great. You are power given form, you are destruction made manifest, you are the final evolution of three different pathways of life, and you cannot look at your situation as if you were some simple farmer doing what was best for their beloved spouse."
He thought on her statement for a time, trying to fit the seeming contradiction in her words. "You say that I could chose to…be intimate with you alone, or I can 'bring home' other women that share your sense of honor. Wouldn't the first way just be me doing what was best for you?"
"Mmm. I believe I was unclear with that point. I will not control who you wish to share affection with, should they meet the appropriate criteria. Given my preference, you and I would come to love one another, alone. Given my preference, Suzuhara would still be alive. We do not often get what we prefer. It is not that I am a jealous woman, there were many other kitsune that Suzuhara was good friends with that happened to be female. I trusted him, not them. In that way, I trust you. I cannot, in my wildest imaginings, see you suddenly becoming the type of man to become possessed by Puck's spirit and begin fornicating with everything you see like some randy goat." Without looking at him, she smiled and ran her fingers through his hair affectionately. "You are an honorable man, who has had every opportunity to become a common cad, and instead have chosen the path of loyalty and fidelity. I do not wish you to labor under a misconception, I would sooner have ended my own life than tether myself to someone without your qualifications. The last of my kind or no, I will not submit to the touch of a monster."
Rei's statement on the rooftop several nights past, on how he needed to treat Daphne because of their situation, pushed him towards vocalizing something that he didn't know how to put into words properly, "You…uh, you also…shouldn't be forced to submit to the touch of someone who just sees you as an obligation. I…I need to do…be better. I need to…." He growled in frustration, letting his eyes wander along the cavern they walked to try and find anything to help him speak the words he didn't understand. "When you brought the plan to me, where you'd deliver a list of goods for me to look for out in the world, you…smiled. It wasn't a smile you meant anything specific by, it wasn't even something you did intentionally. You just…smiled. It lit up your face, showed exactly who you were, inside. Kindness, and joy, and a proponent of peace for everyone around you. I knew, before, that Suzuhara hadn't chosen you at random…but I knew right then and there that he was an extraordinarily lucky man to have earned a place at your side." He blew out a harsh sigh, then spit out the words through gritted teeth, "Fortunate…doesn't even begin to describe what I am that you would even consider being my friend…let alone more."
If he had been looking at her, instead of hiding the shame he felt by keeping his eyes on their path, he would have seen tears of true joy welling in her eyes. "We are fortunate that we find the company of one another pleasurable, indeed. I did not misspeak when I said that I was blessed to have even one man love me…to have had two is a treasure that I will honor and respect for all our life."
+++++ Deep underground, Australia. (Thursday + 26)
After a day of walking, Shinji and Daphne arrived at the location of their goal. Floating inside of a sphere of nearly unbearable light was a Crystal of indiscernible darkness. Shinji had pressed forward, urging Daphne to stay back where it might be safer, and discovered that no amount of force would penetrate the sphere itself. Light, somehow solidified, was preventing the final Crystal from being obtained directly.
A series of attempts were then made, involving both individuals' abilities and powers. Creeping vines, massive blows, every manner of physical and magical solution was proposed and summarily failed. Two hours in, Shinji made another command decision, "Can you do something about the light? Just…dim it somehow? We're not really getting anywhere, and I hate to say it but I'm starting to get a little hungry."
"I would be glad to." Daphne coiled some fern fronds around the sphere so that nearly all of the sphere was covered, save for a portion on the northern and southern poles. Rubbing her eyes, she laughed ruefully. "I should have thought of that sooner, my shade. It was rather aggressively painful to look at, wasn't it?"
Shinji tilted his head slightly in confusion. "Your…shade?"
"Yes." Digging through her pack, she began to quickly assemble a cold meal out of the things she'd brought and a few things she grew in place. "Do you not find comfort sitting in the shadow of a large tree? Respite from the constant drumbeat of the sun pounding down upon your brow? Even plants, such as the adorable lichen we've seen, have grown to require a break from the unceasing sun. I may prefer to dance in the sun, but I find no shame in taking shelter in the shade you provide me. You merely offer a different comfort than most. Suzuhara would gladly frolic in the bright light of the day with me, enjoying the feel of the heat and tranquility of seeing the world at its most vibrant." She offered him a bowl, and the smile she now knew held tremendous power over him. "You, on the other hand, will likely find our time best spent walking through forests at night, enjoying the other half of the world. The feeling of being held close by the life that thrives in darkness. When the light of day becomes too much, I'll take comfort in my shade."
Accepting the food, and blushing slightly at how the smile made him feel, he nodded his gratitude for both. It was much more than a snack, as he began to carefully eat the fruits and nuts with his fingers. Vitamins and minerals, nutrients of all types, with traces of animal flesh from time to time providing him denser proteins. "Where…where I was born, the world had been changed by Second Impact. The heat was constant, almost year-round. 'Winter', if you wanted to call it that, was at most one degree cooler than 'Spring' through 'Autumn'. The only relief from the sun was inside, with the AC turned up."
She took her place next to him, sitting closer than a friend would while still not crowding him. "Which would explain, in some ways, why you've taken to wearing lighter clothing despite the dawning winter here. It must feel wonderful to not bake day in and day out."
"You're not wrong. Being cold is kind of novel, to me. I didn't realize that I was a naturally warm person until I had something to compare against."
"I find your warmth comforting, as well." She leaned against him, chewing on her much smaller portion of food. "You have life bursting out from within. It radiates outwards, draws those of us who feel weak to you."
"I wouldn't describe you as weak."
"We're all weak, from time to time." Plucking a berry from her bowl, she placed it against his lips, feeding it to him. "There is no shame in it, so long as you don't allow it to overwhelm everything around you. Even you have the right to feel weak, and none will have the right of it that tells you differently. Power, strength, might, whatever it is you wish to term the capacity to do great and terrible things…it doesn't change the truth of the matter that no one being can be everything at once."
His tongue lingered on the berry she'd given him as her finger remained pressed against him. The sweet juices extruded mixing with the slightly sour flesh within. "…You're pointing out the duality of things."
"You're far more observant than you give yourself credit for." She tapped his lips playfully. "Nothing is ever one, simple, thing. The towering sequoia, thick and ominous, relies on the smallest of creatures in the beetle and squirrel to help them propagate. It provides voluminous shade, but requires intense heat. So massive are they that the water from the ground itself can never be enough, and so it sips at the fog that rolls through its habitat. Everything is connected, somehow, and everything has more than one facet to its existence."
"Except these." On a whim, he took her finger from his lips and placed it against the Crystals adorning his necklace. "Every time I try to think of them in some way other than how they present themselves, they…distract me." The feel of her hand in his lacked the electric fire of holding Usagi, or the gentle majesty of holding Rei, or the playful frost of Mizore. Touching her was like feeling the pulse of the planet, the woven interconnection that gave everything else a chance to thrive. "The blue one comes from Water, the orange one from Earth, the green one from Air, the red one from Fire. That just…is what they are, or that's what they want me to see them as." He could sense his pulse beginning to increase, and he tried to look away from Daphne only to have her use their shared grasp to nudge his face back towards her.
"There is no shame in taking pleasure from my touch." She unleashed her devastating smile, gently washing away his defenses. "What do they say, that directs your understanding of them so?"
"They, uhm…they don't say much. 'Water', for lack of anything more compelling to call it, is the only one that's talked to me directly, and even then only a few times and only…really only to warn me about things it doesn't want to happen." He let go of her hand, intending to set that hand back down on the rock he was perched on, only to find that he was now covering over her other hand. "It…uhm…it was the…. C-called…called me W-Warrior…." He couldn't focus clearly. Her fingers danced along his necklace, brushing against his exposed throat. His pulse was racing, his desire to feel her becoming an avalanche. "Dar…D-Dar…Daphne?"
She was suddenly astride him, sitting on his thighs, her legs wrapped tightly around his torso. "Plants were the original medicines, for any number of ills. The largest problem fauna faced when using them, however, was dosage." Using tendrils of lichen to lift his hands, she set his appendages to holding her about her shoulders. "Too much was often as fatal as too little, and with life at stake there were few that were eager to experiment with berries that could kill them with the slightest drip upon their tongue." With her own hands, she worked her touch along his torso, removing his shirt and exposing the fresh scars beneath. "One of the benefits of being a Dryad, and now of assuming the mantle of Earthmother, is an instinctual knowledge of appropriate dosages for various forms of life."
The merest hint of pressure from her fingertips was bliss. Each miniscule portion of the fern-appearing scars came alight at her attentions, the angry red of damaged flesh becoming a vigorous blue-green instead. He could hardly breathe, his body receiving too many different signals to process each of them as he needed to. He wanted to ask her why, wanted to ask her what she was doing, wanted to know what he was supposed to do, and couldn't get his mind to cooperate enough to even begin to sort those impulses into verbalized questions.
"I can feel what has been done to you, you know." Her languid smile partnered well with her luscious tone, "How you have come to be so very broken. We have time, here. Time to take care of the little things that the big things are built upon. Time to set right what has gone so horribly wrong within you." She pressed her lips against the portion of the Kodama's markings upon him that covered his sternum, breathing life into him before leaning back and watching it spread. "Your chemistry, your spirit, they're both imbalanced. You lack things all living creatures possess, things that would have been replaced had you come into our care earlier. Don't worry…I'll make this right. It's a wife's duty to heal her hus-"
The sudden cessation of joy caused a violent pain within Shinji. His eyes were struggling to regain proper focus, and he felt a viscous, sticky substance spreading across his torso from where Daphne laid against him. When her head toppled off of her body, falling to the side, Shinji's brain felt as if claws of ice had just crushed it. When he saw the multi-armed demon standing there, the four-eyed draconic entity bearing a look of mild confusion on his face, Shinji lost track of everything. The world itself turned white, time and space no longer held any meaning, and all he could hear was the distant sound of someone screaming in rage.
+++++ Hikawa Shrine. (Thursday + 26)
"My guess would be nothing good." Maria stood staring at the dome above her, like everyone else that was now completely awake. "I…I can feel him, but it's like trying to feel the shape of an apple with your hands buried in ice." One side of the dome was far brighter than the other, a bad portent but clearly not enough to describe what it was that had caused it.
"Well, we have two likely culprits," Haruka snarked. "Thermonuclear warfare, or something's wrong with Shinji!"
Rei was looking around, counting heads. "Where's Yukiko-san?"
"Took off like a bat out of hell less than a second before half the sky caught fire," Chris answered, scowling thoughtfully towards the south.
"Ok, anyone seen Sarah-chan or Naoko-san?" She began edging towards The Tree. "Anyone?"
Clare nodded in agreement with Rei's intent, and took off at a dead run to check on the two women that they knew were directly connected with Shinji.
+++++ Australia. (Thursday + 26)
Yukiko appeared at a safe distance from Ground Zero, nearly blinded by what was a coherent beam of glowing death emerging three arcseconds from below the ground below Adelaide, Australia. At thirty meters in diameter, and barely effected at all by the gravitational pull of the planet, she was able to make a rough guess as to the origination point. Preparing herself to do what was necessary, she steeled herself and teleported herself directly behind the source of the blast.
What she saw once she appeared behind him was a man that had finally reached the end of his rope. The being that arrived to this reality as 'Shinji Ikari' had obliterated most everything that existed within the cavern system he was standing in. She could see, embedded at the point where his spine and his shoulders joined, the final Crystal. With a surface so black that she had to infer where it was by the light refracting off of what was around it, she had part of her answer. The rest of her answers, however, were likely going to have to come from the one responsible for erasing the surrounding ecosystem from existence.
So close to the energy cascade there was no sound. Every ounce of atmosphere had been pushed violently away, nothing could transfer the sound through the expanding void creeping outwards from the central point. She edged around the side, and saw something she could work with: her 'brother' had not gained control over Shinji. She could reason with Shinji, she could scare Unit-01, but her brother had everything to gain and nothing to lose by taking over. It would hurt, but she didn't care. All she had to do was touch him, and push him towards a better path.
That wouldn't be wise. A grim voice sounded within her mind. The Warrior of Dark is adjusting to his new reality.
With her hand hovering near Shinji's throat, Yukiko frowned. 'Wise' stopped being even remotely important when whoever started this nonsense put the powers of Creation in the hands of a former mortal.
It is your intention to prevent his purpose? To keep him sheltered beneath your hand forevermore? Whoever was speaking was very clear about their distaste for that concept. Let what must be, do what must be done.
It is my intention to save the man I love. Her hand began to move forward, only to be halted by an invisible force.
Haven't you heard? A grotesque chuckle reverberated in her skull. He doesn't believe in it.
Don't…. Her voice strained as she pushed with increasing force against the barrier. Care…. Her hand began to glow red with heat from the strength she applied. I…. Her dress began to burn around her. BELIEVE! Once her hand made contact with Shinji's flesh, the evacuation of light and absence of sound ceased. His body flopped to the floor, boneless and covered in bruises. Whatever had created the barrier had fled with the voice that had told her to stop.
She flicked her hand back and forth, trying to radiate the heat away and remove some of the numbness. In the sudden darkness, she had to rely on alternate forms of vision, and couldn't find any trace of anyone else in the local area. Knowing that meant Daphne was either missing, or worse, she bounced her heel against the ground while trying to think of the best plan at the moment. If the Dryad were dead, everything she, Haruka, and Michiru had just been arguing would have become semantic. The instant he awoke again, there was every chance that he would resume his violent display of rage. Her opportunity to think of anything was cut short by Shinji violently sucking in air, his body twitching as he attempted to set his limbs back to their proper configuration. "No, no, lay still. You might be-"
"Might?!" His eyes were unfocused, but they still landed on her with a glare. "I might be injured?! I've begun to fucking lose count of how many women have died in my immediate presence!" Pushing himself upright, he stumbled and fell back down to one knee. "Every time one of you says that you can help, every time one of you starts to infect me with…with…." His mouth spasmed, fighting against the word he wanted to spit out as a curse. "With the belief that things can be better, I wind up covered in blood! Why the fuck can't I feel my spine?" Reaching his right hand back behind him, he felt the Crystal that had embedded itself there. "Oh, for fuck's sake, what now?!"
"Shinji, stop!" Yukiko moved to stand directly in front of his face, scowling at him in frustration. "We can't control what happens! Not even The Wanderer can control everything. The only one with the ability to do that is…whoever started this whole chain of events. 'The First Cause', so to speak. I've told you, time and again, things will get better. Am I dead?"
"So, what, there's a power threshold? 'You have to be this powerful' to be near me?"
"Maybe! I don't know!" She threw her hands up. "I'm doing the best I can with the limited information I have. I know that we can defeat the people that want to destroy things. I know that you have all five of these Crystals, whatever they-" She stopped when his face went flat. "…What? What's wrong?"
"You don't know what these are?"
"No. I know they're concentrated power. Very specifically tuned to…what it is that they are. I started looking for them when you came back, remember? You think I'd leave something this powerful for our enemies just lying about if I knew about them before you showed me what to look for?"
"I think we've been flying by the seat of our pants for the past four weeks." Balling up one fist he smashed it into the ground and screamed in agonized rage. "Mother fucker I am so fucking tired of being led around by the fucking nose!" He launched three more punches in rapid succession before he felt his hand restrained. His eyes snapped up to Yukiko, ready to launch into another tirade, when he saw that tears were rolling down her cheeks.
Without saying anything, she began to carefully pick the fragments of rock that had become embedded in his skin. "I…lost my dress trying to stop you from continuing to hurt yourself. I don't have any cloth to wipe the blood up."
After watching her work for a time, he admitted in a cold, detached monotone, "She was in my lap. She…was doing something. It was making me…."
"Who killed her?"
"That four-armed walking dead man." Life came back into his voice, if only through rage. "I made a bargain with them, so that I could focus on finding these fucking Crystals. He was warned what would happen. Now, I'm going to go find him and I'm going to get creative with general relativity. Why does my left arm hurt?" The latest in a nearly month-long string of assaults on Shinji's sanity struck, a violent beam of energy lancing down the tunnel he'd bored out of the ground in his madness striking both Yukiko and him without warning. Searing pain reverberated along his nerve endings, his vision overwhelmed as his skin baked. After the beam died down, he swallowed back bile, burying the pain for later. "Yukiko?"
Her reply carried hints of sorrow, "I'm here."
"Good." Opening a portal in front of him, he stepped through it into the open air above the Fifth Angel. Willing Apollo's Bow into his hand, he did what he remembered Rei doing several times. Nocking the arrow, pulling back, and firing all while falling down towards his foe. The golden arrow lanced true, smashing through the A.T. Field of the insanely powerful Ramiel, pulverizing the Angel's core, blasting out the underside of the Angel, and striking the earth with enough force to cause an earthquake. When Shinji landed, he struck the sloped side of his enemy and slid down to the ground on his rear. Reaching the end of the slide, he dropped to his feet in front of an equally naked Yukiko and dismissed his bow. "I'm going to go on a rampage now. I don't know when I'll be done. I don't know that I'll ever be done." His tone was far too calm, "Maybe when the universe starts making sense again…I'm not entirely sure, though."
"Would you please come home? At least long enough for me to clean that wound properly."
"Why bother?"
"Because it would make me feel better."
"…Keep everyone else away from me." He opened a portal leading to the top floor of the apartment complex. "I'm in no mood for their lies." The sound of a scream drew both of their attention, Yukiko rushing through the portal and Shinji following slowly afterwards. Looking down on the courtyard far below, he saw further evidence that there was no true victory possible. Khlorya was slaughtering the residents of the Shrine. There was too much blood, too many body parts, for him to readily tally the cost incurred by his humanity. Jumping off, he landed on the ground and slowly walked over to where Rei, Mizore, and Yukiko were pushing Khlorya back away from The Tree.
"There you are!" Kicking Yukiko into Mizore, then dodging an arrow from Rei and backhanding her away from the fight, Khlorya approached Shinji with a playful grin on her face. "I really don't know how you manage to hide from me so easily."
He allowed himself to be pulled into a hug, letting the seemingly indestructible woman do what she would. "It would appear you're the only person I can hide from. Everyone else seems to find me without problems."
"Well, that won't be a problem anymore." Stepping back, she left her hands on his shoulders and winked. "There are only a few of them left now. Once I've killed them, there won't be any more of that silly Light shining on you. You can become who you were supposed to become, and we'll be able to have all the fun we want to have."
Now that he was closer, he could make out a few defining features of some of the body parts. "Why?"
"Now, now," she chided him, a touch of heat growing in her voice, "I warned you while you were standing in that kitchen. I even warned you each time I sent one of them to die in an attempt to kill others. Black is White, and White is Black. They've made their choice, a choice you can't make for them. All those dreams they had, of loving you, of growing old at your side? Those were all lies. They wanted to join their free will to your destiny, but they couldn't coexist with the nightmares you bring with you. If they would have just left you alone, they could have lived. But no, they tried to convince you that this was your world. We both know it's not."
He looked back at her, and slowly shook his head. "That wasn't what I was asking. Why can I hide from you?"
It was evident that she was slightly taken aback, not having anticipated this level of apathy regarding the lives she'd ended. "I'm…not really sure. But it doesn't matter, we-"
"Stop talking." Shinji gripped her jaw, his thumb pressing up under the soft flesh beneath the mandible. "Why is it that whenever someone else kills someone under my protection, they're spared, but whenever someone under my protection kills someone else, they must be punished? How is that…just?"
Khlorya pushed on his arm, trying to make him remove it from her throat. When she couldn't even budge it, she pushed harder, confusion and fear granting her even greater strength.
He ignored her for the moment. "Yukiko…who made the Laws?"
"The same person who set all of this in motion. The person who created The Wanderer." Staying out of reach of Khlorya, Yukiko walked around to stand near Shinji. "What are you going to do to her?"
"Haven't decided. Who's left?"
"Myself, the Flamemother, 'Yukiko', possibly Sarah-chan, Doctor Akagi, and the Daughter of Farms. She took a bad hit, trying to evacuate Sarah-chan, I didn't get a chance to see the outcome before I was engaged myself." Mizore limped over with Rei's help. "I hope that what you haven't decided is how she dies."
He looked at her meaningfully. "Do you really want her gone?"
"Perhaps in more civilized times we could attempt to rehabilitate her," Rei opined, "but she has been the cause of far too much destruction already." When he turned his face towards her, she shook her head. "We can't let her live. Not and have a hope at peace ourselves."
"Mmm." Placing the fingers of the hand not choking Khlorya to his necklace, he tore off the red Crystal and offered it to Rei. "It's probably going to hurt. But if you want her gone, this is probably how you can do it."
"Do it." Mizore urged Rei onwards, lifting herself away from her help. "I think he's onto something."
When Rei reached for the Crystal, she flinched back as he collapsed his hand around it again. "What's wrong?"
He still lacked any significant emotion, each word spoken as if it had no choice but to be placed where it was. "I will not choose this for you…you must decide this for yourself."
Her eyes narrowed, then she reached out purposefully to open his fingers and take it from him. "If I can resolve this problem, then I don't care what-" Upon making contact with the shimmering surface of the red Crystal, she became engulfed in a silent, raging inferno of vermillion flame that obscured her nearly completely.
Without hesitation, Shinji plunged Khlorya into that fire. When he pulled back his arm, most of the flesh and bone below the elbow was simply gone. Before either Yukiko or Mizore could react, he waved them off with his remaining hand. "It will heal. Keep away from her, I doubt either of you would be unscarred."
As suddenly as the flames engulfed Rei, they died down with equal haste. Left standing before the others was a changed woman. No longer dressed in the modified sailor's uniform her team preferred, Rei Hino now wore a form-fitting suit of red flexible crystal that closely resembled the plugsuit an Eva pilot would wear before battle. The shrine maiden looked herself over, pain slowly creeping into her eyes. "Is…is this really how you see the world?"
"Once you find a different perspective, one that demonstrates something I'm not seeing, I'm perfectly willing to reconsider my situation."
Rei looked around them, seeing the mangled corpses of so many people with fresh eyes. "Is she gone?"
"Yes." He poked at the stump of his right arm. "Contenders for the crown could only survive so long as the throne itself remained empty. Once this is healed, I'm going to go pay a visit to the other stupid son of a bitch that thought he had a right to do as he pleased."
Mizore shifted closer to him, concern hanging from her. "Run that one past us again?"
His arm wiggled as the various components began to replicate the lost limb. "I am Shinji Ikari, the Silent One, the Grey Elder, the Infinite Titan, the All-As-One, the Warrior of Dark…Death Incarnate, and Ruler of the Void. I am Chaos, the space between." With his left arm, he gestured towards Rei. "She is one of the people whose job it is to kill me. Let's hope she succeeds."
+++++ Hikawa Shrine. (Thursday + 26)
The ladies left Shinji alone while he pieced together the puzzle of flesh that had been left after Khlorya's attack. Yukiko promised to keep an eye on him while the other two went to check on the other possible survivors. Rei hadn't yet figured out how to change out of her new clothes into her normal attire, but found that she was growing stronger with every second that passed. Kneeling down next to two new corpses, she allowed Mizore to do what she could about the labored breathing of the only other survivor of Khlorya's attack. "I thought she was supposed to be immortal, her life tied to Shinji's."
"She," Sarah coughed harshly, fluid built up in her lungs pushing on everything, "she lied. I think."
"Shh, child." Mizore hurt looking at the condition Sarah was in, the damage inflicted far too great for any normal human to survive.
"No, no…I'm fine. I can feel," she squirmed, coughing again, "I can feel things healing. It just…hurts."
Rei shook her head, trying to think of what she would do different in Sarah's position. "Why do you think she lied?"
"She said everything would be ok." Sarah smirked, a grim expression for such a young face. "Look me in the eye and tell me that wasn't a fucking lie."
Mizore motioned for Sarah to open her mouth, creating a siphon out of ice to draw the excess moisture from the youth's lungs. "If she said it, without truly believing it, it is possible that it was lie enough to kill her considering that Sarah-chan is a part of Shinji. A foolish provision for her to put in, considering the way that the Laws function."
"She came across, to me, as an overly literal person. She might not have thought about the fact that figures of speech can be viewed as literal assurances. Or…we might be wrong, and she wasn't immortal for some other stupid reason." Rei stood back up, looking around the dining area. "We were meeting people left and right. Losing one for every two we gained. The balance between his world and ours…there's just not enough to stop it from collapsing on his end every damn time."
"Not enough what?"
"Hope! Good! Whatever it is you want to call it that gets you out of bed in the morning, that stops you from just turning the lights out one night and never waking up again. The belief that the world can get better, no matter how bad it gets! That's what we were responsible for. That idiot Usagi, Ami, Makoto, Minako…I guess even Setsuna, Michiru and Haruka. We were the light beating back the darkness. The hope that a new day would dawn. We couldn't even get him to believe that it was possible to win. What chance did we have in overcoming his world's darkness?"
Dumping the various bodily fluids she'd gathered from Sarah's lungs into a nearby bucket, Mizore shrugged. "The same chance we have now. Better than none, worse than we'd like." She gestured to Sarah. "This one wants to live. Wants to fight to get Shinji to see reason. I haven't survived the shit I've lived through to give up now. If he really killed that bitch, then all we have to worry about now are nuclear weapons, demons, and those Angels. We build the city, he fucks off to wherever he wants to go to get his anger worked off, then when he comes back we jump him and bury him in lust. We use lust as a lever to pry open the casket where he buried love, and then we work from there."
Sarah took several deep breaths, before squeezing Mizore's arm in gratitude. "I like that plan. The moment we start thinking that this is all hopeless, we've lost and all of this meant nothing. I'm not a nihilist, and I doubt you'd've taken on the job of being a Shrine Maiden if you were one yourself. We can still bring good out of this. Or at least, we can kill enough bad that it's closer to balanced out."
+++++ Hikawa Shrine. (Thursday + 26)
After arranging the bodies as best as he could, Shinji turned his attention towards the apartment complex. Placing his hand against the exterior, he pushed on the building to return it to a completely upright position. Calling on the gifts of both the orange Crystal and the Mujina, he replaced all of the stonework with the material he used to create the barrier as well. Once he was confident that the building would withstand nearly anything, he set his mind towards carving runes onto the surface with the help of the yuki-onna's gifts.
Yukiko kept close enough to observe him, and far enough back to not crowd him. "What are you planning?"
"I promised them safety. Each time I've tried, I've failed." His right hand was constantly in motion, his mind trying to readjust to the new flesh that had grown from the ruins of the old. "I failed, because I didn't accept the truth. I didn't come here to build them a future. I came here to make room for that future to be built by the right people."
"And you're willing to doom yourself to see it done?"
Creating a pillar of stone to lift him up to the top floor apartments, he looked over to Yukiko briefly. "Tell me how this is any different than what my father had in mind for me. I don't get a life. I don't get 'happy'. I was, and am, a weapon. Once I've done what I have to, the Sailors will end it. They are the ones who are meant to build. To lift others higher. My job, like I said, is giving the people wanting to create, the space they need to create in."
"I'm not going to let them kill you."
Stepping off the pillar and onto the balcony that lead into Michiru and Haruka's old apartment, he shrugged. "I don't remember giving you a vote."
"And I don't remember caring whether or not you agreed with me!" She floated over to where he couldn't walk forward without moving around her. "You're in pain. You've been abused, battered, and now you're almost completely broken. But I can help put-"
"There is no 'putting me back together'. You can't unmake what I have become." Lifting his right arm slightly, he wiggled his fingers. "Light can, and will, defeat darkness. I will do what I have to do, then I will let them take my head."
"You haven't become anything! You're still exactly what you've always been, a-"
"Weapon."
Sarah interrupted the argument with a drawn-out sigh, "Well, I'd call you an idiot, but I'm frequently told I'm overly blunt." She, Rei, and Mizore entered the apartment, the yuki-onna lifting all of them up in a similar manner to the way Shinji used. "Nobody's ever heard of a coin with only one side, Shinji. If there's nothing but sunshine and rainbows out there, nobody has any reason to improve themselves. If there's nothing but unrelenting dread and darkness, nobody has any drive to improve the world. Unless you plan on having them kill me too, you're going to have to put up with hanging around life a little longer."
Shinji looked back over his shoulder to the trio, then shook his head before returning to Yukiko. "I want him out of me. I don't care how bad it hurts. Where can we do it that will be safe enough for them?" He tipped his head back towards Rei.
The tiny woman frowned, wary of his intentions. "Why?"
"Because once he's out of me, your job here is done. You can go back to doing whatever it is you were doing. The other option is I go ask the Angel how to extract him. I doubt you're going to want to let that happen."
"…Meet me on the moon." With that, she disappeared.
The apartment had everything he could think of that they would need for the moment, minus running water and electricity. "Once she's done, I'll see what I can do about providing electricity and water. I'll move as much food as I can next door as well. It should last long enough for me to murder everything else on this planet." He moved towards the door leading to what had been Ritsuko's apartment. "After I check next door, I probably won't be around for a while. Leave a note inside the ruins of the tree if you need anything. I'll check there from time to time."
"Is this really how you're going to treat us?" Rei moved closer, freezing when she saw him turn to look at her.
"I don't believe in love," Shinji paused at the doorway. Cold, dead, eyes taking in the three women standing in the room, "This is all that's left of the world because my father believed in that idiocy." Gesturing out to the land of the dead through the window behind them, he shrugged, "Love is a disease. It eats at you until you can't breathe. Whatever it is you think you feel for me? Kill it." He turned back around, "Before it kills you." Opening the door to continue his one-man assault on creation, he checked the wards protecting the last humans on Earth. He promised them safety after all, no matter how little he ultimately cared about them.
+++++ Runic Throne. (Tuesday + 2,964)
"That's…worrying." The Wanderer stood from the chair he used to watch Shinji's new reality. Freezing the scene playing through the mirror, he leaned on the frame and took in all of the details he could.
"Pally?" The blonde aircraft pilot, Noelle, hurried over to him. All of the women of the house were nervous whenever he sounded anxious. She, more than any of the others, was very aware of his penchant for understatement. "C'mon, now. Talk to yer lass."
"When Hikari gave me the power of foresight, I had that long rolling nightmare." He shifted his bulk, allowing Noelle to hug him from the side. "I had thought they were all other lives. Past lives, where other Shinji Ikaris had lived and died in various tragic ways. I kind of…blocked them out, after a time. Few of them were pleasant, none of them beat what I have with me here. But I remember saying exactly what he just said. I remember the…emptiness inside of me. There were other lives, me and Rits married with her hiding me from NERV as they tried to fight against a feral swarm of Ayanami clones. Me and you…." He blushed, despite the gravity of the situation. "We were married, discussing having kids."
"Aye, that sounds right bonnie." She grinned playfully up at him, before letting her grin die down to a knowing smile. "But without Tits there with us, it'd be a mite lonely, yeah?"
"Yeah," he agreed. "But what does this mean? How did I have a dream so precise? Even the Horaki family would insist that the dreams were often…almost like metaphors. Shorthand for things that would come to pass eventually if you weren't careful. How did I dream of a world I'm not living in? Of a future that I only barely had a hand in creating?" The Wanderer worked his tongue along his teeth. "I'm going to bring Rei-chan in. Maybe Iris too. I'll replay this for them, see what they think."
+++++ Ankara, Turkey. (Thursday + 26)
The demonic entity had spent the time between fleeing Chaos' retribution and the first sounds of battle outside of its palace contemplating what had happened. It could not remember going to Australia. It couldn't even remember exactly what it had been doing in the moments before it found its hand covered in the green ichor that had once been inside of the Dryad. It considered itself a logical, if chaotic, being. Doing what it would was in its nature. Doing the exact thing that would lead to its own demise? That wasn't 'chaos', it was madness.
Dying screams and howls of rage began to creep closer, its forces putting up a valiant, though ultimately futile, defense against an unstoppable force of nature. "Did the pawn believe itself a king?" His question, asked to no one in particular, hung in the air, taunting him. He had been concerned that the being known as Khlorya was destined for the throne he sought. She had seemed truly chaotic, helping or hindering the man approaching his chambers seemingly at random. In the end, her death had been…underwhelming. He had expected perhaps a grand battle. Her deep-seated belief that she was inevitable striving for dominance against the Silent One's growing nihilistic apathy. Instead, she received the same fate he was about to. A merciless execution.
When the rampage reached the room outside of his chambers, he remained seated. Attempting to stop what was about to come with violence would be a waste of energy. His death had arrived, but he would have something to say before the end. As soon as the doors were kicked open, he began speaking, "I hereby attest under the Laws that I do not know why the Dryad died at my hand." The statement had the result he'd hoped for. The Silent One stopped moving forward, one eyebrow lifted in curiosity. "I genuinely do not know how I arrived at Australia. The last memory I have is of walking through the ruins of Mexico City, looking for a particular artifact. Then I was standing before you, interrupting an intimate moment, with her vitals coating my hand. I barely made my escape before you demonstrated that I am not in the same league as you are."
The Silent One seemed to contemplate the statements. Not responding, nor reacting, but simply considering what it was that might be meant by what it had just heard.
"I had a destiny, myself. A creature of Chaos, fighting against warriors adorned with those Crystals we both sought. I would have created fiends that controlled the very elemental powers themselves. I would have sought to create a world that would become the seed for a universe of pure, unbridled, chaos!" He shrugged. "But that future was ripped from my grasp…and I know it was not you that did so. I know that it was not you who is responsible for the deaths of those Warriors of Light left unborn. I know…that this is a future that should not have been." Slowly standing up, to avoid seeming hostile, he approached his death with his shoulders proudly back. "I ask of you one favor. Find whoever it is that is responsible for this…and give them worse than what you will now give me." After he reached the point where a simple punch could eliminate him, he asked a question he hoped might have an answer, "…What are you?"
The Silent One placed his hand atop the demon's chest, concentrating the energy that would fully destroy it. "…Angry."
+++++ Runic Throne. (Tuesday + 2,964)
The Rei Hino that came from The Wanderer's universe looked upon the image of the Rei Hino that existed within the Silent One's universe, and carefully moderated her volume when she asked incredulously, "You sit here and you watch this happen?!"
Iris, the beautiful blunette that had once been known as Rei Ayanami, had her attention focused on the neatly arranged limbs and torsos that had been left in the wake of whatever had struck the Hikawa Shrine. "There is no purpose to intervention in a universe that only exists because he created it. We know the answers to our questions exist within the various potentialities that arise from chaotic free will, nobody guaranteed that those answers would be simple, or pleasant."
"I'm not sitting here giggling with childish glee, Rei." The Wanderer raised one eyebrow, chastising his beloved for losing control over her emotions again. "Iris is right. If I constantly intervene every time one of the Shinji Ikaris out there has a damn hangnail, then I'm never going to find the answers we need. As…." He looked back to the scene. "As difficult as this has been to watch, he's managed to not lose himself to either Unit-01 or the madness of power. He's destroyed a potential incarnation of Chaos, two…two, now. His reality, as tragic as it is, has given rise to the hope that there are potential allies out there."
Rei wasn't satisfied with that answer. "Why would we want an ally who can't even keep those closest to him alive? Who doesn't understand that love makes you stronger? Who loses his grip on his temper at the slightest abnormality in his situation?" She gestured vaguely around the dark reflection of her home Shrine. "He flits from project to project at ran…dom…." Her eyes narrowed and she glared at her husband. "Oh, fuck you."
"Later, perhaps," Iris interjected laconically. "The three of us should definitely refresh our memories of the love we share, but for now I believe we might wish to determine if this Shinji Ikari is truly chaotic. Retrieving the war criminal Hope, however, gives us an opportunity to assuage our Beloved's conscience."
The Wanderer blinked, uncertain as to her meaning. "…What do you mean 'opportunity'?"