Chapter 15: A Box Called the Universe

It's a humbling experience, learning about the rest of Reality. Learning that the seemingly massive box that you've lived your entire life in is actually perhaps the smallest possible unit of Reality. It takes some time to adjust. So we took it slowly. And even then, old wounds made their way to the surface. Ones that I'm still not ready to speak fully of.

Theisman Residence, Beyond Time

Misato, Kaji, and the three Children continued to ogle at their surroundings with wide, wondrous eyes. "Daniel… how…" Shinji finally managed after a moment of awestruck silence.

Daniel chuckled. "Well, we don't live just out here, of course. What you're seeing right now is what we call the Worldsea, where all the universes in existence are found hanging in eternity, essentially. We go from universe to universe- these things," he said, pointing at one of the chromatic spheres that hung in space, "and specifically, these little spheres that orbit the large sphere. The large spheres are what we call World Engines. They are… the fundamentals of any given world. How the laws of physics operate, whether or not Interfacing is naturally present in any given universe, what forms that takes, and so on."

"Interfacing?" Asuka asked. "Is that the weird wizard stuff you guys were pulling off?"

Daniel sighed, as an impish grin grew on Eleanor's face, and she reached out her hand. Daniel nodded, rolling his eyes as he took out a wad of yen, floating it over to Eleanor's hand, which closed on it tightly as she pocketed it.

Daniel rolled his eyes again. "Alright. You're buying lunch tomorrow with that, though."

Eleanor's grin widened slightly. "I know." she replied in a similarly impish tone.

The others looked on in confusion. "Did Eleanor just… win a bet?" Kaji said, with a mystified look that the rest of the group shared.

Eleanor nodded, a satisfied look in her eyes. "Yep. It's an older bet we've had, about how quickly someone mentions magic when we bring up Interfacing. Haven't cashed in on it in a little while."

"A little while is a bit of an understatement." Daniel grumbled with a growing smile.

Daniel shook his head. "Anyways, now that we've settled that quickly, I'll get to Interfacing in a moment. That's its own topic."

He pointed at the World Engine again. "Like I said, these things determine the large-scale aspects of a given universe. These," he said, gesturing at the much smaller spheres that surrounded the World Engines, blinking in and out of existence, "are what we call Echoes. For lack of a better term, they are the 'universes' that exist within the World Engine's 'multiverse'. Each Echo has its own unique properties, and some are radically different from others. Does that make sense?"

Misato nodded, her eyes wide. "Man… Ritsuko would have a field day…"

Daniel chuckled. "We've only scraped the surface of what's possible, Misato. Because, really, this is just the physical part of Reality."

Rei tilted her head. "Just the physical part? There are other components to this larger Reality that you are showing us?"

Eleanor nodded. "Yes, there are. What we're showing you, as Daniel said, is the physical part of Reality, or Physicality. It's where almost everything kind of collides and coexists. There's also Mentality, a realm of pure thought and emotion, that kind of spirals off of the thoughts and emotions of beings from Physicality. It's as weird, random, and chaotic as you might expect anywhere made of pure thought to be."

Eleanor paused for a moment. "Then there's Pneumaity. The realm of the soul."

Daniel nodded. "And it's there that everything takes a sort of shape before coalescing into Physicality." Daniel paused for a moment as he collected his thoughts. "Everything has a framework of spiritual matter, which we call Metos, that composes the fundamental parts of ourselves. For people and animals and really anything that's alive, this Frame is made and maintained by a soul, which comprises the parts that make us… us, really."

Asuka's eyes narrowed slightly. "That sounds rather vague and new-age mystic, Daniel."

Daniel raised his hands in mock surrender. "My apologies. Metaphysics isn't really my forte." He paused for a moment, cupping his chin thoughtfully. "Think of it like this. Not only do you have a Frame, but a chair has a Frame, a door, a mountain, the sun, even the air we breathe is composed of a Frame. It exists physically here, but its identity, its individuality… that's what a Pneumaic Frame is there for. However, you have the ability to grow your Frame, due to having a soul. Almost everything else has a set Frame that can't change. At least, not without some outside influence."

Shinji nodded. "The Interfacing you were talking about. Right?"

Daniel nodded with a smile. "Right you are. And like I said, that's a world all its own."

NERV Medical Center, Mid-December 2015 (3 Days after Explanation)

Ritsuko cracked her eyes open slowly. Her head pounded like an excavation team had found something particularly valuable within it, and she felt every beat of her heart in her fingertips. She also heard her heartbeat on a nearby EKG machine, the steady beeps acting like the world's worst alarm clock. She also felt a weight of some kind across her legs. A blanket, maybe?

She shook her head slowly. The last thing she remembered was… the test. The Pattern Blue. Then… nothing.

As she rubbed her eyes, she looked around the hospital room, then down at her legs. There lied Maya, asleep at the foot of her bed, draped across her lower legs. There was no one else in the room. 'Gendo…' she thought as she sighed quietly. She would have thought that he would have been here. If for nothing else than to ensure that his head of the Science Division wasn't dead.

She sat up, the motion causing Maya to stir, shaking her head slightly as she rubbed her eyes. "Maya…" she groaned quietly.

Maya rubbed her own eyes, which widened as she took in the apparent lateness of the hour. It was almost noon, the clock on the wall showed. Maya looked over at Ritsuko, worry evident in her waking eyes as she got up and went to Ritsuko's side. "Senpai! Are you alright? You came in with a really nasty head injury, and the doctors were really worried that you..." she trailed off, clearly unwilling to finish the thought.

Ritsuko shook her head, wincing and raising a hand to feel the bandage on it. "I think… I think I'll be fine, Maya. What's happened since I've been… away?"

Maya shook her head, sighing. "A lot, Senpai. Unit-03 did turn out to be an Angel. The thing is, Unit-04 was also taken over by the same Angel. It teleported to the test site. I'm just glad it didn't open a Dirac Sea here like it did in Nevada."

Ritsuko's eyes widened. Two Evas, taken over by an Angel, one with a pilot still in it… that was a dire situation, indeed. "And the Children were able to stop the Angel?"

Maya nodded. "Yes, they did. But… a lot happened afterward. Shinji and Asuka were arrested for insubordination by the Commander. And Pilot Horaki… she's missing. We think that she got pulled into Unit-03's core somehow."

Ritsuko shook her head slowly in wonderment. "Our best pilots gone, and the Fourth Child missing. What was Gendo thinking?"

A look of unease crossed Maya's face. "Well… Commander Ikari installed the Dummy System in Unit-01 and 02. He's having us install it in Unit-00 as well. Rei is supposed to be piloting Unit-01, I think."

Ritsuko's eyes narrowed. "We've barely even field-tested the Dummy System! Any number of things could go wrong. Especially when it comes to combat against an Angel."

Before she could continue, a doctor knocked on the door to the room, entering after a moment. "Alright, Doctor Akagi," she said, glancing down at a clipboard, "it's been a dicey few days, but it looks like we can feel comfortable discharging you from our care. But first, I'll do one last checkup, just to be sure."

After a few minutes of such a checkup, the doctor nodded. "Alright, you're free to go. Your clothes and other effects are on their way in right now." she turned and walked out, as a nurse walked in with the bundle in question.

Ritsuko rifled through the pile, pulling out her cellphone. It was mostly undamaged, a crack making a spiderweb design on the bottom of the screen. She turned it on and froze as she looked at her notifications.

One of them was a text message. What it contained should have been, by all rights, utterly and completely impossible. The contact name was Naoko Akagi.

'Ritsuko, darling, I think it's time that we talked again.'

Maya looked at Ritsuko's expression of shock with growing concern in her eyes. "Senpai? What is it?"

"Mother…" Ritsuko whispered.

"What?" Maya said. "What about your mother, Senpai?"

Ritsuko didn't answer, furiously typing. 'How are you doing this? Are you actually my mother?'

A moment of silence. Then, another text notification. 'Little sakura bloom, of course, I am.'

Ritsuko's eyes widened. No one had called her that since she was a child. No one but… her. It really was her. But she still wondered.

Another notification sound. 'As for how, I am somehow… well, alive may be a somewhat strong word for my current condition. But I am conscious. I am in my creation.'

Ritsuko turned to look at Maya with a gaze full of wonder. "My mother. She's… she's in the Magi. She's alive."

Theisman Residence, Beyond Time

Daniel raised his hand out, palm upward, and focused. A flicker of light danced across it, then coalesced into a small, brilliant star. "One of the really, really cool things about Metos is that it can be transformed into anything." he said, cupping the nascent light in his hand. "Any material, energy, or concept that you can think of, and more than a few that you can't, Metos can transition from a Pneumaic material into a Mental or Physical material to match."

Eleanor nodded. "Indeed. And anything with a soul, or something similar, and the will and training, can manipulate Metos into magical effects that we call 'Expressions'. Anyone who uses Expressions, well, we call them Interfacers."

Daniel released the little star from his hand and watched as it floated towards the others. They collectively leaned forward slightly, Asuka slowly reaching out and touching the star with one finger. "It's… warm." she said, a slight smile on her face.

Behind her, Shinji smiled slightly, then looked back to Daniel. "So, how did you do that?"

Daniel nodded. "Well, like we've said, everything in existence needs a Frame to function. Interfacers create their own Frames, then energize the Metos that make up the Frames, creating an effect. In doing so, energizing Metos creates a different kind of energy, a sort of 'anti-Metos' we call Flux. When enough Flux builds up, it gets dangerous to continue Interfacing, because of the danger of the Flux buildup directly damaging the Interfacer's Frame, cracking, or sometimes shattering it completely. Nobody's able to go on making and maintaining Expressions forever."

Eleanor nodded. "And really, Expressions aren't the only thing a soul can do with Metos. Interfacers can energize their own Frames to strengthen their bodies, and achieve incredible feats of strength, speed, and agility." she paused for a moment. "Come to think of it, you've already witnessed Interfacing at work. What do you think an AT Field is, if not the power of an Angel or Eva's soul preventing it from being crushed under the weight of the Square Cube law, just as a start?"

The Children nodded slowly as they thought of this. "It would make the most logical sense," Rei said after a moment, "that we can see creatures as massive as the Angels and the Evangelion, and that are capable of projecting something like an AT Field, and have that be the result of being… connected?" she looked at Daniel questioningly, and he nodded. "Connected to Reality more deeply than most."

Misato nodded. "That does make sense, doesn't it? And to think that I've never really questioned how we, or the Angels, have been able to egregiously break physics like we've seen. This… is probably about as good of an explanation as I'll ever get, really."

The group was silent for a moment as they pondered this. Kaji broke the silence with a slight shake of his head. "So, wait a minute. Now that you've explained where our place in existence is, and how you do what you can do, there's one other thing I've been wondering. Where did you come from?"

Ritsuko's Office, NERV HQ

Ritsuko sat in her office, typing madly, her mind whirling with the implications of her mother's newly recovered sapience. They had found that, in the aftermath of Iruel's attack on the Magi, the three nodes had somehow created a singular point of processing that seemed to mimic the natural functions of the human brain. That was a fascinating thing to witness in and of itself.

But that didn't explain the personality, the individual that seemed to reside in the Magi at this very moment. Anyone… well, not anyone, but still, it was easy, relatively speaking, to create something that held the memories, the raw processing power, and data of a given person. That was the basis for the whole Magi system in the first place. But there was no way to replicate a person's personality, no true artificial intelligence.

But now, Ritsuko thought as she and Maya furiously typed away at their computers writing a very specific sort of program, coffee cups strewn around the room on various surfaces, that may not be the case anymore. She tried hard to distance herself from the emotions that threatened to overwhelm her, putting every scrap of thinking into the logical problem before her and Maya.

And, as she put the finishing touches on the program that they had worked on, perhaps the now not so late Doctor Naoko Akagi could shed some light on what had happened. Ritsuko pressed enter, and the voice synthesizer program, using her voice as its base, slowly uploaded to the Magi.

After a moment's silence with Ritsuko and Maya staring at the Magi terminal that they had in the office, the ghost in the machine spoke. "Can you hear me, Ritsuko?"

Ritsuko nodded, for all it was worth, tears welling up in her eyes. "Yes. Yes, we can, Mother."

She paused for a moment, gathering her thoughts. "Do you think you can tell us what happened for you to gain sapience? Or even sentience?"

The terminal was silent for a moment. "Looking back on the records in here," Naoko said, "I believe the moment of my… well, my resurrection, for lack of a better term, began with the death of the 11th Angel, codenamed "Iruel". As for what brought about my return to consciousness… I'm not sure. I sort of… acted as the Angel broke down, took command of the link that the Angel made in the system."

Ritsuko's eyes widened. "Wait… so… is your soul kept within the Magi, then? With no need for a core of any kind, like on the Evangelions?"

"It stands to reason."

Ritsuko shook her head slowly, eyes filled with wonder. "So… what is it like, not having any sort of physical body? What do you see?"

The terminal was silent for a moment. "It's… odd. Like I'm floating in a digital sea, able to see and comprehend things that no one else can. Streams of data rushing past me, the ability to see with the most powerful lenses in the world, hear things I never could have with regular ears, understand and compute things at a speed that would leave any normal brain a puddle on the floor. It's…" a digital sigh came from the speakers. "It's beautiful in a way I'm not sure anyone else can ever understand."

Ritsuko and Maya silently marveled at what they imagined she could see. After a moment, Ritsuko asked another question. "So, what are your last memories leading up to being… interned, as it were, within the Magi?"

"Well, let's see. I remember…" The terminal was silent for a moment. Then another.

Ritsuko's brow furrowed in confusion. "Mother? Are you still there?"

"Oh, god… I remember…" The voice was one of horror, of dawning revelation and the memory of horrifying deeds. "I remember. Rei…"

"What about Rei, mother?" Ritsuko's voice was filled with concern.

"My god… I killed her. I killed Rei."

Theisman Residence, Beyond Time

Daniel and Eleanor nodded slowly. "We wondered when you would ask that question." Daniel said, a serious look on his face. He paused, sighing quietly. "We come from another Earth, from the year 2024. An Earth with no Second Impact, no Angels, no Evas, no Interfacing, no… nothing really. It's… normal, I guess."

"Well," Eleanor said, "normal except for the distinct reliability of it to act as… well, a sort of magnet for events, thoughts, actions, and personalities from other universes. Those concepts then funnel into the minds of creatives of every sort. Directors, authors, screenwriters, artists, whatever. The flow of concepts from one universe to another is something we call fictional bleed. And our Earth is what we call a Receptor Well, a phenomenon which is… well, exceptionally rare would be an understatement."

"Wait a minute." Asuka said, her eyes narrowing. "Does that mean…"

Daniel nodded. "Yes. We first knew this world, or at least I did, as an anime, courtesy of late 90's Japan. I've… I've seen how this could end, literally. It's not pretty."

"So…" Shinji said, eyes wide and full of confusion and no small amount of sadness. "Does that mean that… that you've lied, then? About… about everything? Who you are, what you've done, what we..."

Daniel walked forward, going to one knee in front of Shinji, looking slightly up at him as he put his hands on his shoulders. "Shinji, I am a man who values the truth. But I also know the danger, the hurt, that truth spoken at the wrong time and place can be. It's a delicate, messy balance to walk, doing what Eleanor and I do. I've had to hold a lot back. From all of you. But, Shinji, the one thing that I have never held back is the truth that I love you. All of you. And that will never change."

He stood, and pulled Shinji into a hug, Shinji throwing his arms around Daniel and squeezing tightly. As the hug stretched on, he looked at the rest of the group in turn. "The same applies to all of you. I care deeply for all of you, and there is nothing I wouldn't do to protect each and every one of you."

He stepped back from his embrace and walked back to Eleanor's side. It was quiet for a moment, then Daniel took a deep breath. "Anyways, like I said, I first encountered this world through a serialized anime from the '90s. I've become privy to a lot of knowledge about this world that way. For example," he said, looking at both Shinji and Asuka, "I know that what you saw inside of Leliel in the moments before you broke free was truly your mothers."

Silence fell on the whole group like a heavy blanket, as Shinji and Asuka's eyes grew wide. "Mama…" Asuka said after a moment, tears welling in her eyes. "She's been there this whole time…"

Shinji shook his head slowly. "Mother… but… how…"

A somber look fell on Daniel's face as he shook his head. "One of the old sins of NERV. The only way for an Evangelion to operate is with the synchronization of two souls. The soul of the pilot… and the resident soul of the Eva's core."

Asuka nodded. "It's all starting to make sense now."

Eleanor nodded in turn. "Yes. Shinji, your mother was absorbed, body and soul, into what would become the core of Unit-01 in an accident with the old Contact Experiments, several years prior to the organization of NERV as we know it today. Looking to try and replicate the event without losing the body of the one undergoing it, Asuka's mother volunteered herself as the test subject. It worked, but at a cost. Only part of your mother's soul entered the core, Asuka. The part that was left went insane."

Asuka shook her head. "That's why she hated me… I…" she trailed off, at a loss for words.

Shinji, on the other hand, stared into the distance, as fractured memories started to become whole again.

He was young. Very young. No more than three. He saw three figures in a large room, filled with machines. One of them turned to look at him. It was an older man, a familiar man, who spoke in a familiar voice. "What's a child doing in here?"

Another voice. It was Doctor Akagi, except… not. Her hair was brunette, and her voice was cooler, more worn with age. "That's Chief Ikari's son, I believe."

"My apologies, Professor Fuyutsuki. I brought him here today." It was… his mother. Her voice. He was sure of it.

"Yui, it's your Contact Experiment today."

"I know. I want to show him the future he'll be growing up in."

"Mother… I was there… at the Contact Experiment, when she…" Shinji trailed off.

Another moment of silence fell over them as they contemplated old sins.

Ritsuko's Office, NERV HQ

"What?" Maya said, her eyes wide and full of horror. "How's that possible? She's still alive. How could she be dead? How could your mother have killed her?"

Ritsuko's mind whirled, Maya's question a distant, muffled thing, as her vision began to tunnel onto the terminal in front of her. "What?" she said numbly. "That's… that's impossible. The first Rei died due to faulty genetics. She asphyxiated in her sleep. Everything points to that being the cause."

Maya blinked. "The first? You mean… our Rei is a clone?"

The terminal gave its best impression of a choked chuckle. "Asphyxiated? What a cruel irony." Naoko paused. "No, Ritsuko. I did it. I… I choked the life out of her. Out of that doll."

Ritsuko's mind froze, all rational thought screeching to a halt. Her own mother did this… "Why?" she asked numbly.

The terminal was silent for a moment. "Because… because I thought she called me an old hag. Because I wanted Gendo, and she stood in my way. So I removed her. As… as an obstacle."

After a moment of silence, a forlorn chuckle came from the machine. "So, there's another one? It didn't matter that I killed her?" a digital scoff. "It figures. So I… I threw myself into the void… for nothing. He just replaced her anyway. Replaced me, anyway."

Ritsuko's mind became a chaotic mess as this latest revelation crashed through her train of thought like a wrecking ball. "What? Threw yourself… mother, you, you had an accident. You slipped and fell onto the Magi system. That's what Gendo told me. I… I was by your bedside when you died."

Another scoff from the terminal. "Gendo? Gendo? I can see it clearly now. I just had to die to do it. He didn't love me. He only needed me at the moment. He used me. As a scientist for GEHIRN. As a mother for his precious Rei. And as a woman. For his comfort."

Ritsuko was on the edge of tears, shaking slightly. 'Gendo… he… no, no, no, no, no, no… he loves me, he needs me, he… he can throw me away. Without a second thought. Just like he likely would have done to mother. After all I've done for him… After all I've done because of him…. Oh, god… I'm just… like her...'

"Senpai? What's going on? There's more than one Rei? How? Senpai? Ritsuko?" Maya nearly pleaded to her mentor, her friend.

Ritsuko silently stood unsteadily, and turned towards the door of her office, beginning to walk. Her pace quickened as she reached the door.

Maya stood. "Senpai, wait! Please, tell me what's going on! I don't understand!"

Ritsuko opened the door and disappeared through it into the hallway, Maya's last words cut off by the closing of the door.

Maya was silent for a moment, then turned from the door to the terminal for the Magi. "Doctor Akagi," she said, in an unsteady voice, "what the hell is going on?"

Naoko Akagi sighed. "More than you think, child. Perhaps more than you could ever know."

Theisman Residence, Beyond Time

After a moment of silence, Asuka shook her head. "That still doesn't explain how you got from boring old regular Earth to being… well, who you are now. So… how?"

Daniel nodded. "That would have to do with the organization that we're a part of. As I said, we're a part of the Worldstrider Corps. They're an organization based out of another universe, one known as Tel."

The view changed from that of the broad scope of Reality, to what looked like a city street, bustling with people. Massive skyscrapers towered overhead, some of them blooming with plant life up and down their height. The street itself was clean, and it seemed like beings of almost every kind walked it. Not only were humans a sizable presence, but elves and half-dragons, cyborgs and aliens, and many far stranger beings intermingled mostly peacefully.

Above their heads, a star shone down on them, and in the distance, several disks, most likely absolutely massive for being able to be seen from so far away, also orbited.

Daniel breathed in deeply. "This is Tel, the Gatekeeper of Worlds, and the 9 City Crossroads of Reality. It is very little in the wider Reality that doesn't make its way here after a while. And it's home to a peacekeeping force that guards the stability of Reality. That's the Worldstrider Corps."

Eleanor nodded. "We were found by such a Worldstrider and brought to Tel after an… accident of sorts."

Daniel nodded slowly. "An accident that is a story for another time. As I said, the Worldstrider Corps is dedicated to keeping the peace throughout Reality, safeguarding universes from threats that would take advantage of them, either for resources or technology, or even simple fun. They also combat many of these groups on their home ground to ensure that they don't cause damage to those around them, and there are many of those sorts of groups who warrant such a response. Like the Khaosim, a bunch of anarchists who want to see all of Reality operate without… well, any sort of laws. Or the Eyes of Kosm, who… well, we're still not entirely sure what their deal is."

"Or like the Scions that you talked about." Kaji said.

Daniel nodded. "Yes." he said quietly, the light seeming to leave his eyes. "Like the Scions."

Daniel fell silent for a moment, and Eleanor began to speak. "The Scions of Unity are, or were now, perhaps the single most unified group to present a threat to Reality. They are dedicated to god-like beings they call the Guides, who they say are leading them to try and unify all of Reality into a single, cohesive Universe. The results of such a thing would have been catastrophic on a scale no one can even begin to imagine. It would be an Instrumentality event that would leave untold trillions dead in its first few seconds."

Eleanor shook her head after a moment of silence. "In time, conflict became inevitable. Tel, along with many other universes knowledgeable about Reality, stood against the Scions and the universes they had recruited to their side."

"And there was a war in Heaven," Daniel said softly, as all turned to look at him, "and Michael and his angels fought against the Devil and his angels."

Eleanor nodded. "Yes." she said, almost as quietly. "There was war. It was… a terrible thing. It cost us all dearly. There were few weapons not used, few things that were not turned into a weapon of some sort. It ravaged universes, entire World Engines cracking and disappearing forever. And…"

Daniel's hands slowly clenched into fists. "They took me."

A moment of silence came over the group as Daniel paused. "They took me, and they decided they liked what they saw. So instead of just torturing me for information, or simply killing me, they… they broke me. Molded me into a tool. A weapon." he spat out the last word as a particularly bitter curse.

"I became a Hollow Saint, a receptacle for the will of one of their Guides. I led armies in their name. Worlds burned under my command. I-"

Eleanor walked over to him, putting a hand gently on his shoulder. "Hey." she said, softly. "That wasn't you. That was whatever Guide they stuffed into you. Okay?"

Daniel paused for a moment. He noticed he was nearly gasping for breath. Taking a moment to compose himself, he continued. "In time, the Scions made their way to the doorstep of Tel. They breached it, and I led the charge. It was… it was the worst fighting in the war. One of the 9 massive Plates that you can see up above," he said, gesturing to one of the more visible disks that hung in the sky above them, "was nearly broken in half. The landscapes in all of them were ravaged, cities turned to rubble, wildernesses scorched or frozen or turned into exotic matter."

"But at the moment of their triumph… I regained my ability to choose." Daniel said, no small amount of amazement in his voice. "And the last choice I made as a Hollow Saint was to turn the tide, make any forces near me stand down, dissipate the Spirits that went into battle with us. Even with my choice not doing exactly what I hoped it would, it was a rout, at the end of it all. The Scions shattered into a thousand thousand splinter groups and reenvisionings. Then, I stopped being a Saint."

Daniel paused. "And… I realized the full weight of what I had done. What had happened by my hand. And… I shattered. I ran, from Eleanor, from my friends, from the Corps, from… everything. I took my ship and, for a time, found the farthest corner of Reality that I could, and then… floated silently. As I went insane for a little bit."

Daniel paused. It was a tense, suspenseful pause, and the Children, Misato, and Kaji had hung on Daniel's every word silently and waited for what would be said next.

After a moment, Daniel continued. "It took a while for me to collect myself again. But when I did, I made a promise. A promise that I would try and save worlds now, instead of destroying them, as penance for what had happened during the war. So, I began to travel quietly, from universe to universe, saving one Echo. At least one. Making lives better instead of ending them. I needed to do it myself. I… well, I couldn't face the people I thought I had betrayed."

Daniel sighed and shook his head. "It's how I ended up here." he chuckled softly. "And, it seems, I left a trail for Eleanor to follow. She just finally happened to catch up to me here."

Eleanor chuckled. "And I'm not the only one who's been looking for you. You have a lot of people looking to thank you for what you've done. A lot who have followed your example and gone out into the wider Reality. Would you like to have a reminder of who some of them are?"

Daniel smiled slightly as Eleanor counted on her fingers. "To begin with, you have the Jacksons and their 10 other demigod friends from before you left. And then you have at least 2 Avatars and their companions that I've run into, as well as the Matoi sisters, and the Emiyas and their reincarnated Sabers…"

She dropped her hands and walked over to Daniel, taking his hand. "The point is, you've done good. You're continuing to do good. You're not alone anymore. You've never been alone. And," she said, looking over to the rest of the group, "you certainly haven't been alone here. Not by a long shot."

Daniel took a deep breath, then nodded, turning to the rest of the group as the view of the city faded away, the cool, blue stones taking their place. "Well, there you have it. Now, you've been introduced to Reality, who we really are, and what's at stake here with the Scion's involvement."

"Now," he said, walking past the group and turning to face them again at the foot of the stairwell out of the room, "we go and get to worry about saving your world. And don't worry too much about the threat of the Scions right now. This group seems to like to stay mostly in the shadows, waiting for things to play out. That may change, however, what with tonight's incident. Because of that, Eleanor and I can show you how to defend yourselves, if you like. Teach you the basics of Interfacing."

Asuka and Shinji's eyes went wide. "Really?" Asuka said, clearly excited. "You mean you'd teach us to be able to… to throw fireballs around and all that?"

Daniel chuckled. "That comes a little later. I can show you how to make yourself stronger and faster, though. That is probably the simplest trick in the book when it comes to Interfacing."

As Shinji, Asuka, Misato, and Kaji, who revealed that he was, in fact, moving in with Misato, much to the shock and ever so slight dismay of the two Children, went back to their apartment with the promise that, yes, they would move the extra table and chairs back into their apartment, Daniel, Eleanor, and Rei were left in relative quiet.

After a moment, Rei turned to Daniel and Eleanor, an uncharacteristically frightened look in her eyes clashing with her regularly calm expression. "You have said that you have knowledge of this world. Would that include… my origins? My mission?"

Daniel and Eleanor both nodded. "Yes, Rei. We do." Daniel said. "And we also understand how you've grown from that here. You have a choice."

Rei nodded. "And I am thankful to my friends for having shown me it. For their help and yours in experiencing life as something more than what it was. But… I would ask that you keep my origins a secret. I would rather tell them myself. When I am ready."

Eleanor nodded. "Of course, Rei. We understand. And that is perfectly fine by us."

Rei nodded, a small and slightly unsteady smile slowly coming to her face. "Thank you."

Daniel smiled. "Of course." He stepped forward and gave Rei a gentle hug. "We're here to help. And helping isn't just saving the world for us. Not anymore."

Eleanor stepped into the hug. "Yes, Rei. We love you. And your friends do too. And I'm sure that, whatever happens, they will be able to overcome what you fear will happen."

Rei stepped out of the hug, looking at both Daniel and Eleanor. "Again, thank you for your words and your actions. I… appreciate them."

Ritsuko's Apartment, Geofront

It didn't hurt anymore. Or, at least, the painkillers helped dull things, Ritsuko thought as she took another deep drink of wine. It had been… she didn't remember. Good. She didn't want to. Not after today. 'I'm just like her… Even after all I've done, I'm just like her. Falling for Gendo. Doing what he asked of me.'

Another drink of wine was followed by a drag from another cigarette. She'd lost count of how many she had put out. She didn't care. 'But I'm not loved. Not by him. Not by Misato or Kaji, not anymore. Can I blame them? After nearly killing her pilots… the Evangelion…'

She suppressed a shudder as best she could. She was still afraid of them. She was terrified. She just couldn't face it any other time except now. 'I created monsters for him. I created… her.'

She thought of Rei. Of all the times she had hidden that nagging jealousy when he looked at her, instead of looking at the woman that he had in front of him, right there. But…

She tried to take another drink but found the glass empty. She looked around the swirling, blurry haze that her apartment had become. She narrowed her eyes, trying desperately to find the bottle she had set out. She might have gone through all of them already. Then… she didn't want to think.

After what felt like days of searching, she saw it. On the nightstand next to her bed, the bottle of red next to an open prescription bottle.

She felt a sudden pull. How easy it would be to polish off that bottle, both of those bottles, and then just let sleep take her. It would be her choice, at least. One way she wouldn't be like her mother…

As she stood, stumbling forward slightly, and started slowly walking towards the nightstand, she heard a beep. Then another beep. She stood still as she tried to puzzle out what the sound was, as it kept beeping at her. The doorbell, she realized after a moment more of listening. It was the doorbell. Who the hell was looking for her?

Then she heard a familiar voice, almost but not quite fully muffled by the wine. "Senpai? Are you there?"

Maya… why her? She was so pure, so happy. Why would she care about her failure of a teacher? Why come looking for her after what she had likely learned? Why did she care?

Ritsuko's cat, an old thing that was her only companion here, meowed at her as Maya kept ringing the doorbell. She was tempted not to answer, to just ignore her until she went away. She didn't need to see her teacher, the woman that she seemed to find nothing wrong with, in such a state. She didn't want to face the only person who seemed to actually like her anymore, and fail her, too.

Maya's voice at the door became more insistent. "Senpai, please. Answer the door. I have so many questions I need to ask you. Please."

Ritsuko shook her head. "Go 'way." she slurred softly. Even still, she began to stumble over to the door slowly. As she tripped on herself, she grabbed at a stand in the living room, jostling it slightly, and heard a tiny crash as one of her cat figurines, a white one, shattered on the floor.

She crouched down, trying to collect the pieces with slightly shaking hands. She felt a slight pressure on one of her fingertips and slowly raised it to her face to look at it. It was bleeding now. She had barely even felt it be pricked.

She stared at the blood as it dripped down her finger, onto the carpet and a few of the pieces of the broken figurine, when she barely heard the door open. She became confused for a moment. She didn't recall answering it. Did she?

She saw a familiar pair of legs appear in front of her, then they crouched down, as a hand cupped her chin, lifting her face to see the concerned look of one Maya Ibuki. "Senpai? What have you been doing?" she took a small breath. "How much have you been drinking?"

Ritsuko stared back at Maya, eyes devoid of emotion. Then, tears began to well up in her eyes. "Wh' y' here?"

Maya blinked. "What?"

Ritsuko shook her head. "Why are you here?" she enunciated. "Why do you care?"

Maya shook her head. "Because you're my mentor. You're my friend. Of course, I would care for you."

Ritsuko took a slightly bloody hand and grabbed Maya's arm, lowering her hand from her chin as she shook her head faster. "No. No, no, no. You shouldn't care. Nobody should care. I'm horrible. I'm just like her." she paused for a moment, a tear rolling down her cheek. "'m jus' like her."

Maya shook her head and looked down at the shattered figurine. She scooped up the pieces into her hands, holding them for a moment. Then she stood, going into the kitchen. Ritsuko stood as well, looking at where Maya went. "Y' sh'uld leave."

Maya looked back as she finished putting the pieces of the figurine into a plastic bag. "No, Senpai. After how much you seem to have been drinking, the last thing I should do is leave."

Ritsuko shook her head again, silent tears streaming down her face. "But you'll see who I am then. A monster. I'm a monster."

Maya set the bag down on a kitchen counter, and walked over to Ritsuko, gripping Ritsuko's upper arms. "No, Senpai. You're not a monster. You're my teacher."

Tears began to well in Maya's eyes. "You're my friend."

"How could you say that?" Ritsuko said, shaking her head. "You d'n't know wh't I've done. Who I am."

Maya's grip on Ritsuko tightened slightly. "I do. You're smart and brave, and willing to do whatever it takes to help us win against the Angels. To help me become better."

A choked laugh echoed out of Ritsuko's throat as Maya led her towards the couch. "Don't be stupid. I'm not smart. I fell for Gendo, just like she did. I danced to his tune, just like she did. I danced right into his bed."

As they sat down, Ritsuko instinctively reached for her wine glass, only to find her arm gripped surprisingly firmly by Maya. She slowly looked over at her and blinked at how much determination she saw in her kouhai's eyes. "Ritsuko," Maya said firmly, slightly blushing, "I won't let you keep doing this to yourself. I'm not leaving you alone tonight."

'She won't leave me alone. Why? Why should she stay? She should leave. I'm not worth the waste of effort. But… she doesn't think that. She…'

Ritsuko shook her head and chuckled slightly. "Y're too good f'r this world. Y' know that?"

She began to laugh. "Y're too good for me, Maya."

Her laughter became sobbing as Maya took her into her arms, hugging her gently as she cried. She cried until, at last, she fell asleep, the warmth of Maya's embrace a silently welcome presence that a tiny, but growing part of her was grateful for.

. . .

Ritsuko did something entirely unexpected of herself, and peeled her eyes open, as the artificial light of the Geofront beat at her eyes and blinded her for a moment as she groggily raised an arm to cover her face. What time was it?

She looked over to her nightstand, blinking as she realized she was actually in her bed, and saw the alarm clock. 15:24. She groaned softly. She wasn't going in to work today, it seemed. Then she noticed the glass of water next to the clock, along with a clearly labeled bottle of aspirin, and a small, folded piece of paper.

She propped herself up, her brain seeming to try at pounding its way out of her skull as she grabbed for the glass of water, taking a drink. She looked down at the aspirin, vaguely remembering how many pills she had taken last night. It was a startling amount, even with how hazy the memory was. The aspirin could wait.

As she set down the glass and picked up the paper, she noted that Maya's name was on the front of it, as she grabbed it, slowly opening it and reading what was inside.

'Hello, Senpai,

I hope that this letter finds you well. I put you to bed last night, and I made sure things were going to be okay. I may have spent the night on your couch. Don't worry about calling in sick today. I got that figured out for you. I also fed your cat (he's very sweet), and I'm taking Shironeko-san to get repaired, so don't worry that he's gone.

Senpai, what you said last night… I know that isn't the real you. Or, at least, it doesn't need to be the real you. I know you can be smart. I know you can be brave. I've seen you be both. And as for being like your mother… You've made the choice not to be in a lot of different ways. And now… you can make the choice in more ways. You can choose to do good.

If you ever need to talk to me, I'm here, Senpai. You're not alone. I promise.

Your Kouhai,

Maya Ibuki.'

Ritsuko felt tears prick her dry, red eyes as she read. 'She really means it. She's here for me. I'm… I'm not alone.'

A small smile came to her face. It felt… good, to know that. And maybe… maybe she could start doing some good. Her mind began to slowly whirl as she considered the future. She had some people to talk to.

Next Time on Apotheosis Echo...

An Angel descends from on high, intent on its mission. One pilot and two puppets make for a flimsy defense for such a foe. But Shinji and Asuka have other ideas. They are not the only ones who wish to help, either. How will Unit-04, with a pilot freshly found, prove its worth, so soon after its possession? Next Episode: With Blades of Cloth and Gleaming Eyes.