Creation began on 12-06-20

Creation ended on 01-03-21

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Calling in a Favor: First Breaths

Kiel Lorenz was a man of many facets, but when it came to being in a world of people where he couldn't interact with anyone, he wasn't a man that could admit defeat, even as he realized that this was his penance, his punishment for his crimes against humanity. There was no way he would accept defeat, even when faced with the man responsible for bringing him and the rest of SEELE back from the aftermath of Human Instrumentality and putting them all on this plane of existence to condemn them for their arrogance and stupidity against the world the gods gifted them with. So long as he lived, there had to be a way to undo this act of divinity that seemed to possess some form of rules set to keep him in check. He would not accept this as his fate for as long as he could move, which wasn't an issue, as he was restored of his mobility, unaided by his cybernetics.

"You exploited people to bring about the end of the human race in an effort to become deities yourselves," the man that put him back in Germany to serve his penance told him, "and now, you get to be around the very people you chose to sacrifice, knowing that they'll be fine without the threat of the end of the world. In a sense, you get to be immortal…but you're cut off from everyone around you. Eternity in isolation. So close to everyone…but unable to be with them. I hope you enjoy this semblance of immortality. It's all you're ever going to get from me."

The only thing he ever really knew about the guy that punished him…was that he was displeased with their agenda, their disgust with their own existence, and he was as thought to be darker than most caves due to his skin.

-x-

Yui had seen Gendo in front of her, discovering that he was literally hopping on cars that headed towards Tokyo, but the second he tried to approach her, she was no longer in Tokyo. Now, she was in Sapporo.

"What?" She wondered, looking around and seeing that there were people around that didn't even know she was there. "How is this…"

She was then reminded of what Rei had told her before she left her to go have a life of her own. Anyone that was dealt the same penance as her that managed to find her, either she or them would be relocated to a random place in the world, preventing them from being together. Even if she wanted to find Gendo, there was no way for either of them to be together. It had been five months since she was put on the restored Earth; she had been counting the days ever since she met Brother Correction and was punished by him for her role in the end of the human race, and she was counting towards a particular day that wouldn't happen, anymore.

With the new year going down a different route, everything just seemed…not like it was supposed to be going down that way. People going to work like they always did before Second Impact, going to the movies, parks for recreation, cracking jokes, going fishing, flying, racing, falling in love, falling out of love, moving on. But Yui could never be sure if anything she knew from her previous past would ever repeat itself in this new future.

And then…she saw a fourteen-year-old girl with long, purple hair, walking down the street with an older man.

It can't be, Yui thought, recognizing the girl only because of Shinji's memories of a woman matching her description. Misato Katsuragi?

With only a memory to go in, Yui watched as the girl walked away with the man that was likely her father. They seemed to be getting along fine, which was a contrast to what Shinji had learned of his former guardian's father being an inadequate parent in favor of his work. She had to assume that with the world remade and all things relating to the Eva removed from existence, this included any research in to the Super Solenoid Theory, meaning the man that had to be her father had either taken a different career or had taken on work with a different theory. It was the only logical explanation to why the girl and her father were even on speaking terms with one another in this new world.

"What's this boy's name again?" She heard the father ask her.

"His name is Ryoji," the girl answered him.

If the world was remade, then it was definitely likely that some of the people that had been alive before Second Impact occurred had been granted different lives that could be without all the trauma of what the previous ones.

"He sounds older than you," the man told the girl. "A lot older."

"He's only a year older than me," the girl explained. "He's a car buff, not some thug or a spy. Believe it or not, he wants to take over his father's garage."

-x-

"…Even though we have no authority over this Earth," said Sidra to Roh as they observed the blue planet in the small solar system, "we can still monitor to see how Brother Correction has fixed the mistakes that plagued the humans there."

"And the humans that sought to destroy their own world in order to live forever as false deities," went Roh as he saw one of the humans that had been punished severely for their crimes. "Oh, what a way to condemn them for their folly, letting them live forever, but removed from the rest of existence, never to see the people they had either exploited, harmed or sacrificed in their soulless endeavors to escape the end they had unleashed upon themselves. Look at this pitiful excuse of a man."

In their respective orbs showing how life on Earth was progressing in its new condition, the Supreme Kai and Destroyer observed the disgraced Gendo Rokubungi-Ikari as he tried to find his disgraced wife for the third time, only to be relocated far away from her the second he got her attention, placed in a country the humans had referred to as Canada. Then, they saw how he yelled in anger over his inability to be with his wife.

"How pathetic can you get before you understand that when you're condemned to live forever in isolation, you're condemned to live forever in isolation, separated from everyone you ever knew, cared for…or even despised?" Roh questioned.

"He who fails to accept that the reason he was punished for his choices was not because of some deity or demon…but because of his own doing. In the end, human beings are responsible for their own downfall. They can't blame the unseen individuals that they believe to be responsible for every little thing that they do or happens to them. That's ridiculous. We can't oversee everyone. We're not omnipresent like some believe."

"Now, what's this happening on a small island away from the Japanese nation?"

They both looked at their respective orbs, seeing a couple being rushed to a hospital. There was a young woman with brown hair and an enlarged abdomen. Despite their immortality and knowledge, neither Supreme Kai or Destroyer truly cared much about the human reproductive quirks of such an underdeveloped planet in such a small, underdeveloped solar system.

"It looks like a human woman is in the family way," said Roh.

"I will never understand what this Brother Correction sees in humans that make them so invaluable," Sidra uttered. "Being that he used to be like them, and is still to a veritable degree, I can't fathom how he lives with his role as the one dealing in retribution and redemption."

"Either way, Grand Zeno has gifted him with overseeing the Earth and all its creatures. We can't argue about it."

In their orbs, they saw the woman that had been rushed to the hospital holding onto a baby girl, who, for just a moment, unseen by human eyes, was very pale and almost like a ghost.

"It would seem that he is capable of granting new life to beings that originally had none," Roh came to realize.

Sidra noticed the empowered man watching from above the hospital where the girl had been born, wondering what he was thinking of regarding the child. He seemed to serve as an angel of sorts to specific individuals who were either tortured in the past or weren't able to truly embrace all that they were because of something that happened to them that prevented that.

"Maybe we should eavesdrop into his past," suggested Roh.

"The day he became who he is now would be the first place to investigate," Sidra stated.

-x-

He recognized the spiritual remnants of Rei Ayanami as she was reborn as a true human, to a small family of three on one of the Bonin Islands away from Japan, allowing the girl to live a real life with people that had no devious agendas or connections with people in positions of power and authority. She was the first of the trio of souls that had suffered the most because of the people that abused the gifts they were given, and once they were set in their new families, he would check to make sure they were doing better in their new lives than they were unable to in their previous ones.

The first breaths in a new normal are the challenging ones when life tends to throw curveballs in unpredictable ways, Brother Correction thought as he smiled at the girl that was formerly an albino receive a clean slate. But what I like most about these new normals is that they don't have to suffer from the memories of their failed lives. Rei Ayanami is just a name wiped clean from the universal history of this dimension. Her new identity is bound to be one of fulfillment.

Time passed by until he saw the family leave the hospital with their newest member. And then, he left to await the rebirth of the other two people that he knew would be reborn in due time.

-x-

Gendo was going crazy with his isolation. He had just got onto a plane heading to Tokyo, but he knew the moment he made a move towards finding Yui, one of them, if she was even there, would be relocated again, kept from being together. But he couldn't just accept this as his fate. Not now, not when he was certain that there was a way to overcome this!

I refuse to accept this as my fate, he thought as people walked through him to get to their seats. Yui and I are meant to be together forever. Yui and I! Nobody can come between us! Not God, not the Devil, nobody!

Unknown to him, he was being watched by Brother Correction, who was disappointed in him for being unable to accept his fate for his own faults that led him to his purgatory. But he wasn't going to say anything to him. There was nothing more to say to someone like him; no matter what he did or said, he wasn't going to break this cycle of being relocated to a random part of the world should he try to approach the one person he cared about. And even if he ended up finding another person that just so happened to be around, he was going to experience the same misfortune all over again.

I honestly don't know what's worse for you right now, Gendo, he thought as he left the plane as it took off. You don't even wonder about the whereabouts of your former son, and you don't think about the three women you manipulated to do your bidding. You…ill-hearted man. You'll never change, you will live again, and you will never be with anyone.

-x-

Yui had gotten to that date that the world was maimed beyond any hope of recognition…and the world continued as though nobody was aware of this day being one of unspeakable horror. The day just went on and on…and nothing happened. There was no sky turning red, no tsunamis striking the coasts, no wars, no carnage, no nothing of any indication that what she knew would happen would repeat itself. The only thing that happened was that a movie that Yui was certain never came out last time attracted the masses this time around. It was some action film about a man that kept a white tiger as a pet, facing a demonic sorceress that had murdered the man's clan out of spite towards being rejected by an ancestor of the man.

Second Impact has been prevented, she thought as she walked through a thin crowd. No Adam or Lilith, no GEHIRN, NERV or SEELE, no Evangelions or Angels. People are just able to go about their lives without any sense of dread.

Such is the path I've restored them to, she heard Brother Correction in her head, seeing him the other side of the street, walking beside a woman that resembled Naoko Akagi, slightly younger and with a younger version of Ritsuko Akagi. People are able to move on without any feeling of dread. This is their future, free from the feeling that the world will end…because this world has been stripped bare of anything to do with the previous version you had anything to do with. And the lives that were cheated out of their futures will be renewed. The ones forsaken cannot be violated by vindictive souls that have no place here.

Yui wanted to approach him, to try and implore him to see that, from her point of view, what had been done before was the only choice the people had, but just one look from his dark eyes, those soul-piercing eyes, stopped her and made her see that she could've tried until a decade went by…and this man wouldn't be swayed to understand her perspective. Not when he saw things differently than from the way others did. He might've not been a true deity, but he was as close to one that a human would ever become, wielding abilities that were unlike anything the Angels, Evas or however people perceived them to be. It was like he wielded the paradox of an unstoppable force and am immovable object; he could go in whatever direction he chose…and not be made to deviate against his volition, instead making others get out of his way.

Yui dare not even ask him a question that she would probably not enjoy the answer to if she had been removed from existence like several others that sought the end of the world for various reasons. And he just continued on his way with the Akagi women; if they truly were from the previous version of the world, they, too, had been stripped bare of any memories associated to the aftermath of Second Impact, meaning no MAGI or Dummy Plug System. Yes, Brother Correction would've taken care to remove anything and everything. He would've left no stone unturned, no sign or whisper of the previous world.

To be continued…

A/N: Sinners that can't accept their penance are unable to atone for their crimes, and the price of retribution is always high, exceeding the pay that had been intended. Well, Rei Ayanami has been reborn in a new world with a new identity, free of the Ikaris. What next?