Salvation by the Damned
Prologue
Late summer
2015
Instrumentality
"What do you want?" Rei asked, the sunlight creating a halo around her head in the train carriage.
Shinji was cradling his head in his hands, unable to understand what was happening.
"I don't know…" He replied.
"Do you want to be loved?" Asuka said before moving in for a kiss.
"NO!" The image vanished immediately. After taking in a few breaths, Shinji calmed down, "Not exactly…"
"You don't want to be hurt any more…" The image of Misato flickered as he watched her from inside the Entry Plug.
"Yes…" Finally Shinji was being understood, "I don't like to get hurt… I don't want to pilot any more." Tears formed at the corners of his eyes, "I want to feel safe."
"You are safe with us, Shinji." The arms of his mother, Yui, encircled him from behind.
Shinji turned around slowly, "Okaasan?"
Yui nodded and smiled at her son, who then hugged her with such ferocity, fearing that if he let go he would never see her again. As this happened, three people watched him, the three women who played such a vital role in his life as the exclusive pilot of Evangelion Unit-01.
"What does he wish?" Rei questioned rhetorically, the answer already apparent to her.
"He wants to feel safe, to not be hurt again." Asuka replied.
"In order to eradicate hurt, he needs those things that make him happy around him." Misato continued
"People can make him happy." Asuka went on.
"He wants to be around other souls so he doesn't feel alone." Misato summarised.
"He wishes to be one with us." They all said in unison.
Shinji continued to cry as a white light enveloped him and the surrounding green fields of his mind.
Meanwhile
Earth
Lilith opened her eyes a little more, and smiled. Moving her hands away from the Black Egg, turning her palms outwards she stretched out her arms to the world, in a form of an open hug. The green crosses, those souls that were still too far from the original gathering opened up unleashing the many red orbs that each represented one soul, one life. Being drawn in they slowly merged with the Black Egg, adding to the collective mind there. Within a few hours, all the souls on the planet had finally been integrated into the Egg from which all humanity grew out, the remaining crosses glowing in the air.
Lilith smiled wider and drew her hands back to the Egg, the skin in her palms opening again for the souls to move freely inside the Egg, for the minds to meld and for the Lilim to think for whatever they wish in their new world. Lilith closed her eyes, her job had been done, leaning forwards and shielding the Egg from harm she remained that way for all eternity.
However, life always finds a way.
99 years later
Earth
The world was peaceful; humanity no longer walked the streets of the empty cities. Lilith, the mother of the Lilim, had complemented mankind, however the animals of Earth remained untouched. Birds nested in abandoned buildings, pets were free, and nature had to fend for itself. Plants grew where they were always cut down and everything went untouched. As a result, most of the cities became greener, parks over grown but spilling out onto the streets where new green areas began to form.
Still, there are those areas that would never change. Deserts were one of them, no matter what; they still remained dry and barren. On one particular desert, in North America, there was a large crater, but only now has there been a change in this area.
A white light surrounded the crater for a few solid minutes, then it vanished, but this time the crater wasn't empty.
100 years after S2 Engine test
Nevada Base
Control Centre
"Borderline reached!" A technician shouted.
"S2 Engine functioning at full capacity!" A female voice spoke up, "Disengaging umbilical cable!"
In front of them the silver form of Evangelion Unit-04 stood silently, the power plug being ejected from its back. A few minutes of silence followed as they watched the time indicator. It had no numerals on it, only dashes.
"We did it!" The colonel shouted.
Everyone else began to cheer at their triumph. Everyone save for the lone pilot of Unit-04 who stared dejectedly at the viewer, the cheers, laughter and champagne being handed out. Tired he looked up and looked shocked, rubbing his eyes to make sure he spoke to those in the control centre.
"Umm… What's that in the sky? And why is it night?"
The cheers stopped and everyone looked up to see crosses orbiting the Earth, glowing green against the darkness of space. Confused they were about to go outside when…
"Sir!" Said Alex Barclay, the new young military officer, skilled in communications, "I've just uplinked up to our GPS satellite…"
"And?" The colonel insisted.
"The year sir…" Barclay stammered, "The year is 2115…"
Everyone stood around in dumb shock, unable to say anything. "100 years?" The colonel spat, "What happened?"
The monitors and gauges in front of Barclay started to flash and fill up with data, the second lieutenant began typing into his keyboard furiously, "We're receiving telemetry from four of the GPS satellites…"
A large monitor blinked on in front of them, obscuring the view of Unit-04 through the transparent pane. A slowly rotating image of the globe appeared, two-dimensional and green, all major latitude and longitude lines being shown as well as an outline of the continents.
"Plant life has grown by 40% globally." The map indicated this by highlighting plants in green. "Water levels have risen slightly." The map was updated after a metre rise in sea levels had been taken into account, "Industrial activity, nil; Pollution, almost nil; Atmosphere, partially depleted due to unusual energy readings, ozone in these areas has been removed completely." Barclay paled as more readings came up on his small screen.
"What is it Alex?" Captain Claire Ridley spoke up, "What's wrong?"
"World population, apart from those of us here…" He swallowed before continuing, his throat suddenly becoming dry, "Zero."
Everyone stopped moving, their faces going through many stages of shock, all at the same time. At that moment a young boy, no older than the age of 15 walked in, his blonde hair matted and sopping with LCL, the golden coloured plug suit with silver highlights also dripping with the fluid. He was clutching the control for the suit on his left wrist.
"So? What's happened?" He asked, curious as to what those shapes in the sky were.
Colonel Edmund Krieger angled his head a looked out the corner of his eye to the Sixth Child, Nevin Ackerman.
"Get out of here and shower, you stink of LCL." The colonel said coldly.
Nevin widened his eyes, his herb green eyes fixating on the colonel with undisguised rage. Still holding onto his wrist, he left the room quietly to the showers.
"Colonel!" A nameless second lieutenant ran into the control centre, "You've got to come and see this!"
The entire crew that were there began to run out following the soldier until they reached the outside of the base, ground level. He pointed over behind the building.
"What… What the hell is that thing?" Krieger asked to no one in particular.
Far away along the horizon, but still perfectly visible, glowing white form of Lilith stood, leaning forwards to protect a black object. In a circle around her, the mutated forms of the Eva-Series floated, the clones of the Lance of Longinus impaling each one of them, their faces remaining an image of ecstasy. The wings were still spread out over the globe, which was constantly illuminated by the green crosses.
Five minutes passed and still they were standing and looking at the figure of Lilith. Nevin walked out and joined them wearing his casual clothes, looking at the same thing as the others.
"I guess I'm going to have to stop that thing, aren't I mother?" He thought out loud.
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Author's Notes
Well, here we go again, another NGE fic, but this time I intend to finish it.
First off, this is not a SI, I'm not American, and yes, Shinji isn't the star. If you don't like this, then fine, be that way. These characters are indeed my own creations, and thus cannot be used without my permission (not that I own the rights to Evangelion of course). For once I will be dispensing with the use of Japanese words and suffixes, apart from the opening part of this chapter, the characters are American, and thus I don't believe they would speak Japanese.
This should hopefully be split up into 6 chapters, a small OVA if you will. I hope to bring about a likely outcome of what might have been. Reviews/critiques/flames/emails all welcome.
As this is the prologue, this will be the shortest chapter out of all of them. I'm not sure when I'll start writing the next chapter, seeing as I have three other stories to update, but I will try to put up a new chapter within a fortnight's time.
Regards
- Jason