Author: Stephen Mason Email: hagenclaw@icqmail.com
See Prologue for Disclaimer.
Author's note: I can't believe it, I've finished. What am I going
to do with my life now? Eh, I'll think of something, I usually do.
Anyway, I'd like to apologise, again, that this took so long. The
only excuse I have is that uni slowed me down, but that's no much of
an excuse. This was actually the hardest part of the story to write,
I don't really know why.
I also like to thank all the people who reviewed my work. I've
been writing "stuff" for years, but this was my first time I've
written something that I was letting people I didn't know read. I
was really going out on a limb. The response was beyond anything I
had hoped for. Thank you.
Author's note: Well, here it is; the last part, the finally word,
the Epilogue. Enjoy! : )
----------------------------------------------------------------------
NEON GENSIS EVANGELION
THE LAZARUS PROJECT
EPILOGUE
Deep within a dim holographic chamber the 12 black monoliths of
SEELE gaze eyelessly at the large screen. Upon it they watched a huge
column of black smoke pour into the blue sky. At the base of the pyre
the ground and the mountains could just be seen; shifting and sliding
like hot wax, filling the gaping hole.
SEELE 07: "There is word from the Okinawa observatory. A natural
earthquake has also struck the region, 8 on the scale, probably
triggered by the detonation of the cluster mine.
SEELE 04: "My god, It's all gone."
SEELE 09: "The Evas may have survived."
SEELE 03: "There is only a 0.634% chance that the Evas and Lilith
would have survived both the impact and the quake. "
SEELE 06: "Everything we had worked for. Everything."
SEELE 11: "Why Fuyutuski? We thought you understood."
SEELE 05: "We should have never trusted one so close to Ikari."
SEELY 03: "Can nothing be salvaged?"
SEELE 08: "There is no contingency in the scrolls for this."
SEELE 12: "We have squandered our last chance."
SEELE 09: "What about you Keel?"
SEELE 05: "Yes, you led us to this debacle Keel. What do you have to
say?"
With a hollow click the monolith bearing SEELE 01 on it
disappeared. It was replaced by the hunched form of an old man, his
eyes masked by a heavy visor and his hands folded into an almost
prayer-like position if front of him.
"As soon as the quake ceases, survey and salvage teams will be
sent to the site of Nerv." Said Keel, his visored face revealing no
emotion. "It is true that we can no longer look to the scrolls for
direction, but we are not without means. And besides, we are still
the most powerful organization in the world."
SEELE 04: "As you well know Keel, you can keep something alive for a
very long time but once it is dead, no power on earth can bring it
back"
SEELE 05: "Yes Keel, I believe you have finally lost your great
gamble. Perhaps Seele will survive it, perhaps not."
With another hollow click the monolith bearing SEELE 05,
disappeared.
"This meeting is adjourned. Goodnight gentleman." Said Keel. The
other monoliths disappeared simultaneously leaving Keel alone in the
darkness. With a sigh he lowered his head and then he too vanished.
With a thump Asuka slammed her foot into the wall. "That Baka!"
she yelled. A nurse coming down the hallway took one look at the
enraged red head and went the other way. "Doesn't he understand it
isn't his fault! We don't blame him! Arrge, he is just so..." She
drove her foot into the wall a second time, causing the windows to
rattle satisfactorily. The four of them were in the hall outside
Shinji's hospital room; Touji, Kenskue, and Hikari were sitting in
the bench seats beside the wall on which Asuka was venting her anger.
"Asuka," Touji started, but she cut him off.
"You can keep that big mouth of yours shut!" She snarled. "You
were the one who had to go and tell him everything. You knew he was
going to react like this!"
Touji glared at Asuka. "We've been avoiding his questions since he
woke up," he said, trying to control his own temper. "We couldn't do
that forever. He had to know sooner or latter. Better that it should
come from one of us."
"And now he's not seeing anyone. Well, we'll see about that."
Asuka spun around and hauled open the door to Shinji's room.
"Asuka, wait." Hikari implored but her friend had already slammed
the door behind herself. For long moments the three of them sat
listening to the muffled voices coming from the hospital room until at
last they went ominously quiet.
Kenskue sighed and pushed his tinted glasses back up his nose.
"Alas poor Shinji, I knew him well." He said.
"Shutup Kenskue." Hikari and Touji said in unison.
Asuka slammed the door behind herself and stopped. She had stormed
in here with the full intent of bringing Shinji to his senses, only
now, she wasn't sure how to do it. For a moment she just looked at
him; he wasn't the same ragged figure she had pulled from the entry
plug little over a month before. He had been tidied up; he was shaved,
his hair had been trimmed to shoulder length, and he had been steadily
putting weight back on. Right now he was sitting up in the bed, his
hands clasped listlessly in his lap, his wide eyes staring blankly at
the back wall.
"Get out." He rasped. He didn't look away from the wall.
"Shinji," Asuka started, taking one step forward.
"Get Out!" this time he shouted.
"No!" she yelled back. "You have to understand..."
"What I understand is that people are dead and it's my fault."
This time he looked at her. "Karou, Rei, all the others. God, Misato."
His voice caught on the last word and he lowered his head.
"You Baka, that wasn't you fault."
"Wasn't it?" he demanded. "It was my Eva, I was in the pilot's
seat. Even if I don't remember a thing, I'm still the one to blame.
All I can do is destroy things, all I can do is hurt people. I'm
nothing but a monster."
"It was an accident Shinji. Urggh. Why can't you see that? If the
blame lies anywhere, it lies with the idiots who built those dam
Things in the first place."
"What about you Asuka?" he countered. "Touji told me about it.
Wasn't it terrible? All those years being the only Eva pilot. Having
to fight every day. How many times were you put in the hospital
because of me, how many times were you hurt?"
Asuka grabbed his shoulders and wrenched him around to face her.
"And I'd do it all again just to get you back." She said.
Shinji looked up at her, the distress seeming to wash out of his
face to be replaced by a sort of awe. Asuka drew a shuddering breath,
trying to calm down. "Shinji, listen to me." She continued in a softer
voice. "We can't change what has happened and you can't blame
yourself. I know. We have to take things from today onward, live our
lives now, rather than dwelling in the past. I don't want ever to
lose you again."
Quickly she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him fiercely,
burying her face in his thin shoulder. For a moment Shinji just sat
there with his arms limp by his side, staring wide-eyed over her
shoulder. At last he moved; returning the hug with what limited
strength his fragile arms had.
"Thank you, Asuka." Shinji said, pressing his face against her
neck. "Thank you."
Ritsuko Akgai stood at the edge of the cracked, melted tarmac. She
was wearing a blue shirt and a black dress, her lab-coat discarded
before she came here. She appeared to have died her hair. A few paces
to her left stood Touji. They didn't look at each other, choosing
instead to gaze out at the valley in front of them.
The valley was a large, shallow bowl, the floor carpeted in short
green grass occasionally interrupted by spires of blackened rock. In
the middle was a large round lake, its waters a surprisingly clear
blue. Here and there small bushes and young saplings had sprung up.
Beside the ruined road on which the two of them stood was a rusted,
lopsided sign with 'Tokyo Three' just barely visible on it.
"You could hardly believe what it looked like a few months ago."
Touji said at last.
"Or a few years." Retisuko sighed and turned to face him, "I
suppose you want some answers."
"Yeah, it took me some time to track you down, and then you would
only agree to meet out here. After all the problem my friends and I
have been through with Nerv we deserve some answers."
"I've had to keep my head down since the evacuation. Those higher
up, above Nerv, were looking for someone to blame, and with the
commanders dead... Anyway, what do you want to know?"
"The Eva's were built to fight the Angles, but they had another
purpose right?"
"They were a part of the Instrumentality Project, using a number
of Evas and Unit 01 or any Eva, the Lance and Lilith, third impact
could have been caused, only instead of simply destroying the world,
as a third impact caused by the Angels would have, the souls of
mankind would have been melded into single whole, a god born of
humanity."
"That's pretty screwed up."
Retisuko smiled. "I suppose it was." She said.
"What about the 17th and what did he have to do with Unit three,
and the mass-produced Eva's?"
"The 17th Angel was almost human, it was both his strength and his
weekness. He also possessed the most powerful AT field we ever
detected. The dummy plugs used clone bodies to replace the pilot.
SEELE, the council governing Nerv, cloned the 17th and used those
bodies in the dummy plugs for Evas five through to thirteen."
"So how does that relate to Unit three?"
"Unit 03 had an extensively damaged core. The dummy plugs from the
mass-produced Evas were used to repair it. So part of the 17th Angel
was inside your Eva. With out those dummy plugs the Lazarus project
could never have proceeded."
"Well that explains a few things."
"That's it in a nutshell. If you want the full details," she said
pulling out a small disk and tossing it to him. "they're in there. Of
course, none of it matters now. It's the past; buried."
"Yeah," Touji agreed, looking out at the valley. "I suppose it
is. What are you going to do now?"
"I think I'll clear out of the country until it all blows over.
Maybe I'll go to Australia, that would be the last place they would
look. Well good bye."
Touji waited behind after Ritsuko drove off. He stood quietly,
looking out over the valley as he fingered the small disk. When he
finally moved it was to throw the disk to the ground and step on it,
hard.
The sound of the train clattering alone the tracks was overlaid by
the soft hubbub of the passengers. Shinji Ikari sat quietly in one
seat. He was wearing a simple blue shirt and dark pants. His hair was
still long, tied loosely at the nape of his neck. Asuka liked it that
way. The headphones he was wearing stretched down to a new Sdat player
that was clipped to his belt. The original was probably buried
somewhere. He wasn't listening to the same track over and over, rather
he was listen to a disk Asuka had given him.
Life hadn't been too difficult since he left the hospital. He had
inherited his father's modest fortune; it was amazing what the
commander of Nerv had accumulated over the years. It was odd to think
about his father now. He was gone, dead he supposed, and yet Shinji
didn't feal anything. Not sadness, not remorse, not even happy he was
gone. When he though about the others he had lost; Misato, Rei, Karou;
that hurt, a deep pain inside his chest. But his father; nothing.
His biggest problems were coming to terms with what had happened,
and dealing with losing three years of his life. Asuka had made it her
personal quest to see that he didn't drown in self-pity. She was
surprisingly sensitive, when she wasn't losing her temper. They had
grown closer and closer in the past months; he wasn't sure, but he
thought he was in love with her.
Shinji was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he barely noticed
the train draw into the station and the crowd shifting, letting people
off. He was broken from his reverie buy one of these passengers
bumping into his legs and nearly, but not quite falling over.
"Sorry." Said the soft voice of the girl who had bumped him.
"No, my fault." Shinji said automatically, drawing his legs back
against the seat. He barely looked up at her as she passed, noticing
only that she wore a simple black dress and had long, pale blue hair.
After a few moments the rest of the details registered in his mind and
his eyes widened.
Leaping to his feet Shinji scanned the crowd. Catching a glimpse
of blue hair at the far end of the carriage he began to force his way
between the other passengers. After a number of excuses and apologies
he made it to where he had seen her, but she was no longer there.
With a solid clunk the train doors closed and the carriage
lurched into motion again. Shinji pushed his way to the doors and
stared out through the glass. He thought he saw someone on the
platform with blue hair but they disappeared into the crowd before he
was sure.
Shinji exhaled sharply and lent up against the doors. It couldn't
have been, he decided, it must just have been someone who looked like
her.
Deep within the dim holographic chamber the remaining four black
monoliths, bearing the white letters of SEELE gaze eyelessly at each
other.
SEELE 08: "It would seem that our mistakes have finally caught up to
us."
SEELY 03: "Indeed, The world no longer needs us."
SEELE 05: "Even you must admit defeat now Keel. This council can no
longer be maintained."
SEELE 01: "Indeed it cannot. Goodbye gentlemen."
The monoliths bearing the numbers 03 and 05 disappeared and after
a moment the entire infinite darkness of the chamber began to
dissolve. The room revealed was a plushly appointed office with huge
windows along one wall. In the ceiling the small holographic nodes
that had created the chamber could only just be seen. Eventually the
shrouds of the remaining two monoliths were striped away with the last
of the blackness. Behind one was a tall, thin man with a hooked nose.
Behind the other was Keel. He was seated at his large, black desk, a
myriad of cables and tubes leading from the back of his chair to
several large computers and medical machinery hunched in one corner
of the office.
"Seele is dead Keel." Said the hooked nosed man. "Our plans are as
dust on the wind. The perfection that was foretold in the scrolls, the
perfection that third impact would have brought, will never be. But
life goes on. Humanity will have to find its own destiny now." With
that the man turned and left Keel alone.
For long moments the old man stared at the door through his visor.
After a while he sighed. "Then this really is the end." He said.
The End
See Prologue for Disclaimer.
Author's note: I can't believe it, I've finished. What am I going
to do with my life now? Eh, I'll think of something, I usually do.
Anyway, I'd like to apologise, again, that this took so long. The
only excuse I have is that uni slowed me down, but that's no much of
an excuse. This was actually the hardest part of the story to write,
I don't really know why.
I also like to thank all the people who reviewed my work. I've
been writing "stuff" for years, but this was my first time I've
written something that I was letting people I didn't know read. I
was really going out on a limb. The response was beyond anything I
had hoped for. Thank you.
Author's note: Well, here it is; the last part, the finally word,
the Epilogue. Enjoy! : )
----------------------------------------------------------------------
NEON GENSIS EVANGELION
THE LAZARUS PROJECT
EPILOGUE
Deep within a dim holographic chamber the 12 black monoliths of
SEELE gaze eyelessly at the large screen. Upon it they watched a huge
column of black smoke pour into the blue sky. At the base of the pyre
the ground and the mountains could just be seen; shifting and sliding
like hot wax, filling the gaping hole.
SEELE 07: "There is word from the Okinawa observatory. A natural
earthquake has also struck the region, 8 on the scale, probably
triggered by the detonation of the cluster mine.
SEELE 04: "My god, It's all gone."
SEELE 09: "The Evas may have survived."
SEELE 03: "There is only a 0.634% chance that the Evas and Lilith
would have survived both the impact and the quake. "
SEELE 06: "Everything we had worked for. Everything."
SEELE 11: "Why Fuyutuski? We thought you understood."
SEELE 05: "We should have never trusted one so close to Ikari."
SEELY 03: "Can nothing be salvaged?"
SEELE 08: "There is no contingency in the scrolls for this."
SEELE 12: "We have squandered our last chance."
SEELE 09: "What about you Keel?"
SEELE 05: "Yes, you led us to this debacle Keel. What do you have to
say?"
With a hollow click the monolith bearing SEELE 01 on it
disappeared. It was replaced by the hunched form of an old man, his
eyes masked by a heavy visor and his hands folded into an almost
prayer-like position if front of him.
"As soon as the quake ceases, survey and salvage teams will be
sent to the site of Nerv." Said Keel, his visored face revealing no
emotion. "It is true that we can no longer look to the scrolls for
direction, but we are not without means. And besides, we are still
the most powerful organization in the world."
SEELE 04: "As you well know Keel, you can keep something alive for a
very long time but once it is dead, no power on earth can bring it
back"
SEELE 05: "Yes Keel, I believe you have finally lost your great
gamble. Perhaps Seele will survive it, perhaps not."
With another hollow click the monolith bearing SEELE 05,
disappeared.
"This meeting is adjourned. Goodnight gentleman." Said Keel. The
other monoliths disappeared simultaneously leaving Keel alone in the
darkness. With a sigh he lowered his head and then he too vanished.
With a thump Asuka slammed her foot into the wall. "That Baka!"
she yelled. A nurse coming down the hallway took one look at the
enraged red head and went the other way. "Doesn't he understand it
isn't his fault! We don't blame him! Arrge, he is just so..." She
drove her foot into the wall a second time, causing the windows to
rattle satisfactorily. The four of them were in the hall outside
Shinji's hospital room; Touji, Kenskue, and Hikari were sitting in
the bench seats beside the wall on which Asuka was venting her anger.
"Asuka," Touji started, but she cut him off.
"You can keep that big mouth of yours shut!" She snarled. "You
were the one who had to go and tell him everything. You knew he was
going to react like this!"
Touji glared at Asuka. "We've been avoiding his questions since he
woke up," he said, trying to control his own temper. "We couldn't do
that forever. He had to know sooner or latter. Better that it should
come from one of us."
"And now he's not seeing anyone. Well, we'll see about that."
Asuka spun around and hauled open the door to Shinji's room.
"Asuka, wait." Hikari implored but her friend had already slammed
the door behind herself. For long moments the three of them sat
listening to the muffled voices coming from the hospital room until at
last they went ominously quiet.
Kenskue sighed and pushed his tinted glasses back up his nose.
"Alas poor Shinji, I knew him well." He said.
"Shutup Kenskue." Hikari and Touji said in unison.
Asuka slammed the door behind herself and stopped. She had stormed
in here with the full intent of bringing Shinji to his senses, only
now, she wasn't sure how to do it. For a moment she just looked at
him; he wasn't the same ragged figure she had pulled from the entry
plug little over a month before. He had been tidied up; he was shaved,
his hair had been trimmed to shoulder length, and he had been steadily
putting weight back on. Right now he was sitting up in the bed, his
hands clasped listlessly in his lap, his wide eyes staring blankly at
the back wall.
"Get out." He rasped. He didn't look away from the wall.
"Shinji," Asuka started, taking one step forward.
"Get Out!" this time he shouted.
"No!" she yelled back. "You have to understand..."
"What I understand is that people are dead and it's my fault."
This time he looked at her. "Karou, Rei, all the others. God, Misato."
His voice caught on the last word and he lowered his head.
"You Baka, that wasn't you fault."
"Wasn't it?" he demanded. "It was my Eva, I was in the pilot's
seat. Even if I don't remember a thing, I'm still the one to blame.
All I can do is destroy things, all I can do is hurt people. I'm
nothing but a monster."
"It was an accident Shinji. Urggh. Why can't you see that? If the
blame lies anywhere, it lies with the idiots who built those dam
Things in the first place."
"What about you Asuka?" he countered. "Touji told me about it.
Wasn't it terrible? All those years being the only Eva pilot. Having
to fight every day. How many times were you put in the hospital
because of me, how many times were you hurt?"
Asuka grabbed his shoulders and wrenched him around to face her.
"And I'd do it all again just to get you back." She said.
Shinji looked up at her, the distress seeming to wash out of his
face to be replaced by a sort of awe. Asuka drew a shuddering breath,
trying to calm down. "Shinji, listen to me." She continued in a softer
voice. "We can't change what has happened and you can't blame
yourself. I know. We have to take things from today onward, live our
lives now, rather than dwelling in the past. I don't want ever to
lose you again."
Quickly she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him fiercely,
burying her face in his thin shoulder. For a moment Shinji just sat
there with his arms limp by his side, staring wide-eyed over her
shoulder. At last he moved; returning the hug with what limited
strength his fragile arms had.
"Thank you, Asuka." Shinji said, pressing his face against her
neck. "Thank you."
Ritsuko Akgai stood at the edge of the cracked, melted tarmac. She
was wearing a blue shirt and a black dress, her lab-coat discarded
before she came here. She appeared to have died her hair. A few paces
to her left stood Touji. They didn't look at each other, choosing
instead to gaze out at the valley in front of them.
The valley was a large, shallow bowl, the floor carpeted in short
green grass occasionally interrupted by spires of blackened rock. In
the middle was a large round lake, its waters a surprisingly clear
blue. Here and there small bushes and young saplings had sprung up.
Beside the ruined road on which the two of them stood was a rusted,
lopsided sign with 'Tokyo Three' just barely visible on it.
"You could hardly believe what it looked like a few months ago."
Touji said at last.
"Or a few years." Retisuko sighed and turned to face him, "I
suppose you want some answers."
"Yeah, it took me some time to track you down, and then you would
only agree to meet out here. After all the problem my friends and I
have been through with Nerv we deserve some answers."
"I've had to keep my head down since the evacuation. Those higher
up, above Nerv, were looking for someone to blame, and with the
commanders dead... Anyway, what do you want to know?"
"The Eva's were built to fight the Angles, but they had another
purpose right?"
"They were a part of the Instrumentality Project, using a number
of Evas and Unit 01 or any Eva, the Lance and Lilith, third impact
could have been caused, only instead of simply destroying the world,
as a third impact caused by the Angels would have, the souls of
mankind would have been melded into single whole, a god born of
humanity."
"That's pretty screwed up."
Retisuko smiled. "I suppose it was." She said.
"What about the 17th and what did he have to do with Unit three,
and the mass-produced Eva's?"
"The 17th Angel was almost human, it was both his strength and his
weekness. He also possessed the most powerful AT field we ever
detected. The dummy plugs used clone bodies to replace the pilot.
SEELE, the council governing Nerv, cloned the 17th and used those
bodies in the dummy plugs for Evas five through to thirteen."
"So how does that relate to Unit three?"
"Unit 03 had an extensively damaged core. The dummy plugs from the
mass-produced Evas were used to repair it. So part of the 17th Angel
was inside your Eva. With out those dummy plugs the Lazarus project
could never have proceeded."
"Well that explains a few things."
"That's it in a nutshell. If you want the full details," she said
pulling out a small disk and tossing it to him. "they're in there. Of
course, none of it matters now. It's the past; buried."
"Yeah," Touji agreed, looking out at the valley. "I suppose it
is. What are you going to do now?"
"I think I'll clear out of the country until it all blows over.
Maybe I'll go to Australia, that would be the last place they would
look. Well good bye."
Touji waited behind after Ritsuko drove off. He stood quietly,
looking out over the valley as he fingered the small disk. When he
finally moved it was to throw the disk to the ground and step on it,
hard.
The sound of the train clattering alone the tracks was overlaid by
the soft hubbub of the passengers. Shinji Ikari sat quietly in one
seat. He was wearing a simple blue shirt and dark pants. His hair was
still long, tied loosely at the nape of his neck. Asuka liked it that
way. The headphones he was wearing stretched down to a new Sdat player
that was clipped to his belt. The original was probably buried
somewhere. He wasn't listening to the same track over and over, rather
he was listen to a disk Asuka had given him.
Life hadn't been too difficult since he left the hospital. He had
inherited his father's modest fortune; it was amazing what the
commander of Nerv had accumulated over the years. It was odd to think
about his father now. He was gone, dead he supposed, and yet Shinji
didn't feal anything. Not sadness, not remorse, not even happy he was
gone. When he though about the others he had lost; Misato, Rei, Karou;
that hurt, a deep pain inside his chest. But his father; nothing.
His biggest problems were coming to terms with what had happened,
and dealing with losing three years of his life. Asuka had made it her
personal quest to see that he didn't drown in self-pity. She was
surprisingly sensitive, when she wasn't losing her temper. They had
grown closer and closer in the past months; he wasn't sure, but he
thought he was in love with her.
Shinji was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he barely noticed
the train draw into the station and the crowd shifting, letting people
off. He was broken from his reverie buy one of these passengers
bumping into his legs and nearly, but not quite falling over.
"Sorry." Said the soft voice of the girl who had bumped him.
"No, my fault." Shinji said automatically, drawing his legs back
against the seat. He barely looked up at her as she passed, noticing
only that she wore a simple black dress and had long, pale blue hair.
After a few moments the rest of the details registered in his mind and
his eyes widened.
Leaping to his feet Shinji scanned the crowd. Catching a glimpse
of blue hair at the far end of the carriage he began to force his way
between the other passengers. After a number of excuses and apologies
he made it to where he had seen her, but she was no longer there.
With a solid clunk the train doors closed and the carriage
lurched into motion again. Shinji pushed his way to the doors and
stared out through the glass. He thought he saw someone on the
platform with blue hair but they disappeared into the crowd before he
was sure.
Shinji exhaled sharply and lent up against the doors. It couldn't
have been, he decided, it must just have been someone who looked like
her.
Deep within the dim holographic chamber the remaining four black
monoliths, bearing the white letters of SEELE gaze eyelessly at each
other.
SEELE 08: "It would seem that our mistakes have finally caught up to
us."
SEELY 03: "Indeed, The world no longer needs us."
SEELE 05: "Even you must admit defeat now Keel. This council can no
longer be maintained."
SEELE 01: "Indeed it cannot. Goodbye gentlemen."
The monoliths bearing the numbers 03 and 05 disappeared and after
a moment the entire infinite darkness of the chamber began to
dissolve. The room revealed was a plushly appointed office with huge
windows along one wall. In the ceiling the small holographic nodes
that had created the chamber could only just be seen. Eventually the
shrouds of the remaining two monoliths were striped away with the last
of the blackness. Behind one was a tall, thin man with a hooked nose.
Behind the other was Keel. He was seated at his large, black desk, a
myriad of cables and tubes leading from the back of his chair to
several large computers and medical machinery hunched in one corner
of the office.
"Seele is dead Keel." Said the hooked nosed man. "Our plans are as
dust on the wind. The perfection that was foretold in the scrolls, the
perfection that third impact would have brought, will never be. But
life goes on. Humanity will have to find its own destiny now." With
that the man turned and left Keel alone.
For long moments the old man stared at the door through his visor.
After a while he sighed. "Then this really is the end." He said.
The End
