Chapter 30: Parting Clouds

… unified in purpose and in soul, perfected as much as we can be as a species, and ready to face the Reality that waits for us, to lead out into the darkness.

- To Stand Apart, Final Post

1227 Hasarigaru Hotel, September 18th, 2210 Hours

Daniel, Eleanor, Ryoji, and the Children, finally free of police questioning, trudged back into the elevator of their apartment, ready to collapse on their beds and be, at least somewhat, home.

Eleanor fiddled with the Expression Inhibitor around Kaworu's neck, slowly working her Frames into the jaws that clamped around a portion of his Frame. "And…" she said as she began to pry them apart. "Done." she said with a smile as the clasp undid itself, and the collar slid off Kaworu's neck. "That's it. You're all fully free again."

"And I, for one, am grateful for it." Toji said with no small amount of relief as the elevator dinged quietly. "I gotta admit, I was missing being… able to…"

As the doors opened, a far more gory sight revealed itself to them than they'd expected. Misato and a man with a submachine gun slung over his shoulder were picking up the body of what looked like an armored policeman, while Ritsuko cleared stone spikes from the floor, walls, and ceiling.

As Misato looked over at the elevator's opening, she dropped the body, the dead man thumping behind her as she took the Children into an almost crushing group hug. "You guys! You're safe! Thank god, I just… I need to be sure I'm not dreaming. This is going to take a moment."

She held them in the group hug for long, caring moments, not noticing as Ritsuko stuck a stealthy foot in the path of the elevator door with a bemused smile.

"It's good to see you again, Misato." Shinji said, his face buried into Misato for a moment before he looked back up at her. "What happened here? Why are there dead policemen?"

"They're not police, for one." the man behind Misato and Ritsuko said brusquely. "They were special forces. Sent to liquidate the Evangelion Pilots."

"SEELE." Asuka said with a quiet venom and a dirty look that all in the elevator shared.

She chuckled after a moment as the group emerged into the hallway. "Well, of all the things to happen tonight, I wouldn't have guessed that being kidnapped would be the safer option."

Shinji looked at Misato, worry evident in his eyes. "Was anyone hurt? Or…"

Misato's eyes widened. "No, no. Everyone's fine." she smirked slightly. "We even got a few people on their side to surrender. Mostly looks like it was the Japanese Special Forces Group that got sent our way, though. Everyone else, well…"

She gestured around the fairly clean hall as they walked down it. "They didn't make it out of here." she said quietly as they arrived at Misato's door.

She opened it, and as they entered the group of Children was greeted by the other group of Children, Mariah, Mana, Mayumi, Ichigo, and Kensuke rushing over to them with gratitude and relief evident on most of their faces.

"Oh, Pinnochio!" Mariah shouted as she squeezed his face before hugging him tightly. "You guys made it out!" she pulled back from the hug, looking over at Rei for a moment, then pulled her into a hug as well. "Wouldn't want you to get jealous, now, Mrs. Blue Sky."

Rei's shock at the hug turned into a slight smile. "It is good to see you too, Mari." she said quietly, returning the hug for a moment.

As they moved into the living room, Kensuke looked between Toji and Hikari. "So, how are you guys feeling?" he said, no small amount of concern still evident in his voice. "They didn't… do anything to you guys, did they?"

Hikari shook her head. "No, they didn't, thankfully. They just knocked us all out until Mr. Kaji woke us up."

"And besides," Toji chuckled, "if something did happen, I don't think Hikari would have let it be an issue for long, Interfacing or not."

Finally, the parents began to emerge, Yui and Gendo enveloping Shinji while Kyoko embraced Asuka. They all stood there for long, silent moments as the groups began to intermingle more.

Rei came to a stop before Kyu, looking up at her hair for a moment before looking at her intently. "And do you have a new name to go with your new hair color?" she asked.

A slight smile came to Kyu's face as she extended a hand. "Kyu Akagi."

Rei took the hand as she smiled slightly herself. "A pleasure to meet you. Surprising, that Doctor Akagi would let you take her name, let you become her daughter, in a sense."

"I think it will do her some good."

Rei's smile widened slightly. "I do as well."

. . .

Soon enough, the happy reunion settled down into a sense of contemplative gratitude, and Shinji looked over at Misato from a chair as she sat on the couch after a while's quiet conversation, having filled in what had happened tonight for the most part. "Misato. There was something we wanted to tell you before the whole kidnapping thing."

Misato looked over at him with an arched eyebrow. "Oh? And what is that?"

Shinji took a deep breath before he nodded slightly. "We'll do it. We'll pilot the Frame Titans. If we can do it together."

Misato's eyes, along with everyone else's in the room, widened slightly. "And… you're absolutely sure of this?" she asked quietly. "The last thing I want to do to you kids is make you feel like you don't have a choice."

"No, Misato." Asuka interjected. "We all made this choice together. Getting kidnapped didn't change our minds a bit. And if you try to stop us…"

She trailed off warningly, and Misato chuckled. "Far be it from me to try and stop you when you've decided something, Asuka. I should know better than that."

Asuka nodded assuredly as she leaned back in her seat. "There is one thing we want, though."

Misato nodded silently for her to go on. "We want our old Unit designations back. Simple, really, but why not, for old times sake?"

Misato smiled slightly. "Done. It'll be a little tough to have Rei pilot Unit-00 again, though."

Rei shrugged. "I will pilot Unit-05, while Kaworu will pilot Unit-06. At least, I believe that was the agreement we came to in the moments before we were taken."

"Now, hold on!" Mariah said, leaning forward. "What about us? I still want a rematch with the princess here, and…" she trailed off, oddly contemplative for a moment. "Well, piloting is my life. It's the thing I know I'm the best at. I know mom's going to be out of my Unit-05. But… maybe you could spare one of those fancy new Evas for me?"

She looked at her father apologetically. "If you'll still allow me to?"

Julius Marlowe sighed after a moment. "I'd tell you it's stupid and dangerous… but you already knew that. You've trained to prepare for that sort of nonsense. And…"

He looked around the room. "I get the feeling I can trust these people to keep you safe. Alright then. I'll allow it."

It was silent again for a moment as Misato looked at Mana and Mayumi. "Would either of you want to pilot as well? I know we're still in the process of putting things together so we can scope out and extract the souls in your Evas, but if you'd like to stay by Mari's side, then…"

Mayumi nodded slightly. "I… would have to think about it more. I'm not bad at it, yes, but…" she sighed quietly and shook her head. "I'll have to think about it."

Mana shrugged. "If Major Howard permits it, I see no reason why I should not." she said simply.

"Alright, then." Misato said. It was quiet for a moment more. "Anything else we need to be filled in on? Shocking revelations? Uncovered scandals that we haven't heard about yet?"

Daniel and Kaworu looked at each other, the other Children looking expectantly at Kaworu and drawing all other eyes to him. "Alright," Daniel said quietly, "do you want to share now?"

Kaworu nodded. "While I was unconscious, something happened. I had a vision of another world." he glanced around the room at many of the adults, at the Ikari's and Mr. Marlowe in particular. "For those of you unaware, due to the Angelic nature of my soul, I am able to see my interactions on other worlds, other Echoes. One of these Echoes has stood out recently in my visions, clearer than the rest. And now… another world has revealed itself to me. Something that might explain how a portion of them work."

"A Rebuild Echo?" Ritsuko asked, glancing at Daniel. "Is that what they are?"

Daniel nodded, and Misato shrugged. "Alright. So he can see other versions of himself. It's not the weirdest thing we've seen of the Angelic powers. Why should it matter to us?"

Daniel sighed quietly as he looked at Misato. "Christmas Eve, last year."

Misato blinked. "The first Revenant attack?" she asked, a puzzled look on her face.

"Yeah. When I took the Revenant Prime's Spirit core and used it to access Aaminata's soul, their master's soul, I got a whole lot more than just the plans to try and harness Arael's light. I got… everything. I've tried to forget most of it, the details of a life hard-lived, but I also got many of their little revival's plans. They included a fallback position, a place where they could start again." Daniel paused. "Across the Divide."

"Divide?" Yui piped up. "What kind of divide?"

"Well, at some point in time," Daniel explained, "this Echo's World Engine was… fractured, somehow. It was long before the Unity War, even before I stepped into the Worldsea, so it's always been somewhat of a mystery as to how it happened. One side's Echoes are like this one, with the television series based on events here. Those on the other side of the Divide are the basis of events for a theatrical retelling of the series, produced years later by the same director, known as either the Rebuilds or the New Theatrical Release."

He glanced over at Julius Marlowe, who had a somewhat hollow look in his eyes. "I apologize if most of this is going over your head."

Julius blinked back into focus, then shrugged. "Eh. I've received more cryptic mission briefings in my time. Carry on."

Daniel shrugged in turn. "So, and I'll admit it, the mechanics for how those worlds work is a mystery to me, and many others. And I watched all of the Rebuilds. But…" he looked at Kaworu. "The vision he mentions might enlighten us. Some more fully, others for the first time."

"I wanted to wait to share this vision until I could be sure we all could see it. Because…" his expression changed, and there were looks of concern on the other's faces as he seemed visibly shaken. "I don't think I can go through this again alone."

Rei grabbed Kaworu's hand, squeezing gently. "We'll be there for you."

Kaworu took a deep breath, then looked around the room. "You are all free to look in if you would like."

Julius shrugged as he stood. "I'll pass on this little vision quest. I'm going to go peek in on our SFG men that we've got a few rooms over. Have fun. I guess."

With that, he left the room, and Kaworu looked around to see who would stay. The other Children, the Theisman's, the Ikari's, Misato and Mr. Kaji, Doctor Akagi and Captain Ibuki, Mrs. Akagi, Mrs. Soryu, Kensuke, Mari, Mana, and Mayumi. It was… a lot of people to show this… thing he had witnessed. He glanced over at Shinji in particular. What would he think? Would he be…

No. Now wasn't the time to worry about that. What would happen would happen. Shinji would understand. He always seemed to, even under some of the most pressing of circumstances.

Daniel put a hand on his shoulder as he connected their souls. "Alright, folks… here we go."

With that, Kaworu connected to the others, and the world faded into darkness for a moment. Then, the vision began again.

. . .

Kaworu descended into Terminal Dogma, once again. It had become a familiar pattern, really. Many, many times before, it had ended with his death. He had long ago lost count of how many times that had happened by now. He had found, somewhat early on after his first such death, that he could usurp the power of his brother and sister Angels from his Father. It was a… fascinating thing. Almost as fascinating as he was.

So he lashed their souls to his, channeled the power of his own soul, and began the universe again.

At first, he had taken delicate care to set things back to the way they were, almost exactly to what they had been. It had still ended as it had before. With his death by his hands.

So he began again. Then again. Then again. Soon, he began to let certain things change. Sometimes there was only one Father, sometimes many. Sometimes, his brothers and sisters would change as well, some being new souls to be added to his own power.

Sometimes, what they were called by the people that defended against them changed. Sometimes, those people he had found unimportant to his goals, he allowed them to change as well, their names, their faces, their stories. Some, though, must be preserved. At least in some capacity. Those that were vital to preparing him for his coming. For their partnership. And sometimes, many times, for his death.

But some things never changed. There was always Father and the Mother. There were always his brothers and sisters. There were always the Lilim's artificially created shells. The struggle to defeat his brothers and sisters with them.

And there was always… him.

He looked to his left, and he saw Shinji Ikari.

Even still, he was utterly fascinated by him. He wanted to know. How, after all this time, after all that had come before, after all that weighed down on his fragile Lilim heart, he still managed to be… him.

It had driven Tabris to the point of obsession. He had to find out how it worked, how he worked, how he had managed that first time to show him what he had. How he had shown it again and again and again and again, regardless of what the world around him looked like, or what it and the people within it did to him.

He'd gotten far, a few times. Even lived long enough in some lives to stay with Kaworu. But Shinji had always moved on. Always found something, someone, else. This… Tabris did not know how to describe what such a thing did to him. It was worse than dying, even. So, as always, he had started again.

Even with the changes that had occurred, and there were many changes from the initial scenario that had begun this quest, some patterns emerged. For one, a particular series of events had presented themselves more than once. Which was what led him to descend into Terminal Dogma with Shinji Ikari by his side, a copy of the one called Rei Ayanami behind them.

Another such trend was that, as time went on, the tones of the aspects of the world, from his brothers and sister's names, to the names of the Evangelion, always the Evangelion, became more and more musically inclined. Which was how they descended in the Evangelion Concerto, Ayanami piloting the Threnody.

Before them, slumped over dead, was Lilith, the Spear of Cassius and the Spear of Longinus embedded within her. Always, she was Lilith, wasn't she? Another thing that never changed.

He was familiar, now, with the course of events that came next. The realization of the twin Spear's true nature. The dramatic entrance of Evangelions Adagio and Vivace, piloted by Langley and Makinami. Though one of his brothers was, at times, here, this time he was absent. There were only the two Spears, and the need to stop Shinji from foolishly using them. It would be wasteful to have to potentially start all over again, as he had often done from this point.

He warned him off, told him not to use the Spears, for fear of starting another Impact. But Shinji Ikari's rage, his desire to set things right again, would drive him on, regardless. And the Concerto rose into the air, and the Fourth Impact began.

Most times, he would be dead. Now was a rare exception. But as he looked to his left, saw Shinji Ikari tapping into the powers of his soul with no restraint, he saw something… flicker in his eyes.

"Shinji?" he asked, and he looked over. There was something growing like an unkept flame in those eyes of Shinji's…

Realization.

"Kaworu?" Shinji asked, utterly quietly. "What's going on? Why am I remembering things? Why do I remember you?"

This had never happened before. Not in hundreds of thousands of all too short lifetimes. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"I… I remember what came before. What's been erased from existence. Who I was. Who everyone else was." Shinji replied, a slight shudder to his voice as fear, pure and utter terror, began to creep into his voice. "I know… it's been you, wiping things clean and starting things over."

"Shinji, I can explain." Kaworu said, but Shinji Ikari shook his head vigorously, trembling in complete panic.

"The memories. They won't stop. They keep coming. They won't stop! Why won't they stop? Why can't I stop them? Why? WHY?"

"Shinji, wait!"

"MAKE THEM STOP! MAKE THEM STOP, MAKE THEM STOP, MAKE THEM STOP! STOP! STOP!"

And Shinji's soul lashed itself to his, to thousands of his brothers and sisters. And pulled.

"MAKE THEM STOP MAKE THEM STOP MAKE THEM STO-"

Then, there was nothing. No Evangelion, no Terminal Dogma, no Black Sphere, no Earth, no… nothing.

There was only the utter void, and the Light that all things fell into. He could not see beyond that Light. And for the first time in what seemed like ever, Kaworu Nagisa, for there was no more Tabris anymore, felt… fear. A fraction of Shinji Ikari's fear that still overwhelmed him.

And as he reached the boundary of that Light, one last thought passed through his mind. 'What have I done?'

Then, there was truly nothing.

. . .

The apartment faded back into view, as did the somewhat stunned looks of all within the room. Kaworu looked around, saw Shinji looking back with sympathy in his eyes.

Kaworu looked away from him after a moment, then found himself surprised as he felt a firm hand on his shoulder.

He looked up again, found Shinji looking back at him. "It's okay, Kaworu. That's not you. I understand."

Kaworu chuckled softly. "How could I have guessed?"

Daniel's hand on his other shoulder patted it gently before he removed it, cupping his chin thoughtfully. "I see…"

"Okay, then." Toji said after a moment. "Can the rest of us get some enlightenment, then? Cause I only have the slightest idea of what was going on."

"Alright. Here's what I knew before this point." Daniel said. "Whatever happened to make the Rebuild Echoes the way they are, it messed with how time works in them. The closest I've come to call them is 'semi-closed time loops'. The same general events happen, but once it gets near the end of a loop, it doesn't fully restart. It does somewhat, but it continues on, gaining the possibility to change some elements, sometimes radically."

Mari raised her hand. "So, they're like… time slinkys?" she said, her words the only other sound besides the mad scribbling of Ritsuko and Maya on their notepads.

Daniel blinked, then chuckled softly. "Yes, actually. That's not a bad way to put it." he shook his head slightly before he continued. "Now, how this happened, or why, were mysteries for the most part where I came from. The only great hint that the Rebuilds gave us was that Kaworu Nagisa played a significant part in the process of looping time. This, though…"

"To say that this is revelatory would be understating it." Gendo mused.

"Indeed." Daniel paused for a moment before continuing. "This confirms that the looping is Kaworu's doing, and not only that, but at a certain point in time… it all collapses on itself. Somehow. It explains why there are far, far fewer Echoes across the Divide."

"So…" Hikari said quietly. "If the Scions are there, or at least in one of those Echoes, and the Echo will collapse, given enough time… why not just leave them to be… whatever happened to that Echo in the vision?"

It was quiet for a moment before Daniel continued. "You know, that option is more tempting than you might think. After all, even death doesn't fully stop someone who is Interfaced. But there are few places we can't come back from. The inside of a World Engine, which I'm thinking is what that light was, is one of them. But… we just don't know how fresh their Echo is, or how many loops it takes for an Echo to collapse. Or whether they'll accomplish what they're aiming for before that point. We'll still have to find them. And we'll still have to deal with them. Once this is all taken care of."

Those present nodded, and Daniel sighed quietly. "In the meantime, we should probably focus on SEELE again, now that all this nonsense with the Lone World has passed, at least for the moment."

He looked over at Misato. "Commander, what are your orders?"

Misato looked down thoughtfully, silent for a moment. "Well, we're going to need to get a track back on the members of SEELE. It's been annoying not knowing what they've been up to since they've vanished into thin air."

She looked over at Gendo. "Now that you're back, and seeing as you've been somewhat in their inner circle, we're going to be talking soon about where they might have disappeared to."

Gendo nodded. "I think I can offer at least a guess as to one location they might be moving towards."

Misato arched her eyebrow. "And where would that be?"

Gendo cupped his chin. "In one of my many meetings with SEELE in their guise as the Human Instrumentality Committee, they mentioned a location called Arqa."

"Arqa?" Naoko perked up. "I've seen mention of the place in the searches that I did while I was still in the Magi, but they were notoriously tight-lipped about… well, everything that had to do with it."

"Well, it's in the Himalayan mountain range. SEELE only truly began to uncover it less than a decade ago, but they found some… worrying things there. They found information on the soul, how it could be manipulated in what I am now rather sure is the beginnings of being Interfaced."

"And likely the basis, or at least a significant part, of the system that weed-whacked through the poor girl's minds." Ryoji said darkly.

"That is not even the most worrying part, Inspector." Gendo replied gravely. "They found something else there. Something that is supposed to be impossible. They found the remains of an ancient Angel, determined to have died of what they pronounced 'natural causes'."

A shocked gasp rippled through the room. "That… that is impossible." Ritsuko said numbly. "The fact that not only did an Angel that didn't try and make its way towards either Lilith or Adam existed, but that it lived, from what I can guess, in relative harmony with this lost civilization until a death that shouldn't even occur due to the nature of the S2 Organ…"

She shook her head. "I'm almost tempted to try and see it myself." she chuckled.

Naoko shook her head. "I wouldn't try anyways, dear. There was one last thing, one last scrap of communication, that I was able to uncover after the Final Battle of Tokyo-3, just before most of SEELE's network that I knew about went dark."

"And what was that?" Misato asked.

It was silent again for a moment while Naoko closed her eyes, her brow slightly furrowed in recollection.

"The Final Scripture must be read. I shall meet you all in Arqa."

A tense air began to fill the room. "What does that mean, I wonder…" Kaworu mused.

"Nothing good, Kritzeln, that's for certain." Asuka replied. "And it likely has to do with whatever Angel corpse they've dredged up over there."

"Right now," Misato began, "what we'll have to do is find out what, exactly, 'the Final Scripture' is. We're still linking up with the Japanese intelligence network, and we'll likely need far more resources than that. Ryoji's handling that. We'll also likely need some digital help on that front as well."

She looked over at Naoko, Ritsuko and Maya. "Do you think we could get another Magi up and running soon?"

"Another Magi?" Naoko almost scoffed. "With the three of us working on it, and with the technology on hand, we can probably give you something better."

"We'll make it work." Ritsuko said. "Izalith will probably be delighted to help, as well, if she sticks around long enough."

"We'd appreciate their help in expanding the Matsushiro facilities, anyways." Misato said. "I'll talk to Izalith, see what I can get."

"In the meantime…" she sighed, a somewhat defeated look on her face. "We have to play the waiting game, with the Frame Plugs, the new HQ construction… just about everything, really."

She looked over at the Children with a slight smile. "But we'll have you in the saddle as soon as we can. And who knows…" she chuckled slightly. "With the sort of mission profiles that we'll likely be taking on as more and more nations get their own Frame Titans online, you kids might stay very busy."

"Well, it's better than just sitting around, at least." Toji shrugged. "Depending."

"We'll see what you think about training the next generation of pilots." Misato said. "That's probably what you'll be doing for the next little while, along with intercepting whatever might come tumbling out of Reality."

Toji considered this for a moment, then shrugged again. "Still probably going to be more fun than what we were doing during the Angel war."

A quiet chuckle rippled through the room, and after a few moments more of idle conversation, the group began to disperse.

As Misato walked out the door, she looked over at Julius Marlowe, conversing with Mariah. There was still something she wanted to ask him, she remembered, and made her way over to him.

The two Marlowe's looked up at her as she approached. "Oh, hello, Commander." Mari said, straightening to attention. "Do you need something?"

"Yes, actually." Misato replied. "I'd like to speak to your father about something, if you don't mind."

Mari shrugged. "Alright, then. I guess… you don't want me to be here?"

Misato shrugged. "You should be fine staying. It won't be long, and it's not a big secret."

Julius nodded. "Alright. What's the matter?"

"So," Misato began, "are you currently employed?"

Julius shook his head. "No. Just coasting on a rather generous pension." he smiled slightly after a moment. "You'd like to change that, wouldn't you?"

Misato smirked. "I mean, it's a hell of a resume you and your boys have. And I can hardly think of a better job interview than tracking your daughter halfway around the world, then standing up to several other special forces squads. I'd be more than happy to call you Head of Security."

Misato shrugged. "You'll also be able to keep an eye on your daughter, too. And seeing as you have at least a pretty decent grasp of Japanese, you'd be able to live here, at least."

Julius regarded Misato for a moment. Then, he nodded slowly. "Well… when you make so compelling an argument as that… I don't see why not."

Mariah looked from Misato to Julius, her eyes wide and utterly filled with joy. "You mean…"

She hugged her father tightly, then turned and hugged Misato. "This is awesome! Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

She let Misato go, positively bouncing now. "I'm gonna go tell the others! This is so cool!"

With that, she sped past the two adults, barging into one of the hotels, then emerging a few moments later. "Wrong door!" the two of them caught before she ran across to the other room.

Julius chuckled softly at the sight. "So much like her mother when she's excited like that." he said quietly.

It was quiet again for a moment. "I can't believe I'll be seeing her again soon. It feels like… a dream. One I've been having ever since I found out the truth." he looked at Misato with no small amount of gratitude in that usually stern, seemingly immovable face. "Thank you for making that dream come true, impossible as it seemed."

Misato chuckled softly. "Don't worry about it. It's our little side hobby, next to keeping the world safe. And besides…"

She extended a hand. "Welcome to HERZ's Internal Security division. Major Marlowe."

Julius took it. "Pleasure. When do I start work?"

(A/N): Well, that wraps up this section of the story. Now, I'm going to be putting a pause on updates here for the moment to go and work on some hefty rewrites to the original Apotheosis Echo. We'll return to the story in the present as soon as they're done. Thank you for sticking around. The Final Scripture awaits...