Disclaimer: I do not own Evangelion. All characters and other affiliated material is the property of Gainax.
Kozo Fuyutski stood silently upon the bridge of NERV command, staring at the colossal screen in front of him.
"Germany is on the move…"
The commander frowned.
"Aoba can we get a confirmation on the make of those Gamma troops in Germany?"
"They are American sir."
"Damn it. So it's true then. What is the current situation in California?"
"They are secure. It is unlikely that an attack will come, and if it does I think that the Pacific States can hold."
"Is that your opinion or did the governor send that information?"
"The governor."
"Good. Are the Russians ready to mobilize yet?"
"We aren't sure, but if they are the Australians are ready to move on them."
Fuyutski's mind, for the tenth time today, began to add up the factors of war. That leaves us, Britain, the Pacific States, and Australia, against The Atlantic states, Russia, Germany, and more than likely China as well, with France hanging delicately in the balance. And it didn't help that Shinji was gone either. But if California was secure for the time being that at least meant that he could bring the Unit-series home, if only for a little while.
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"Y'know what? Them not talking to each other is really, really, starting to get on my nerves."
The blonde Russian girl turned to her spectacled boy friend and laughed.
"It is kind of awkward isn't it?"
"Yes," Kensuke said, "It certainly is. If I have to go through another dinner where nobody talks to each other, and where everyone asks me to pass everything around the table so that they don't have to talk to the other person…I can't be held responsible for what I might do."
"I wouldn't worry, they always make up when Toji does something dumb."
"I don't know, and I'm not so sure this one was entirely Toji's fault. You should give him some more credit."
"Perhaps, but the score card in their fights is squarely on her side."
"True. All I know is that I cant take much more. And do you have to spend the night with her all the time?"
With a smile, Nishka Zalomai flashed a surprised look at Kensuke Aida.
"Kensuke, are you really that worried about Toji and Hikari, or are you just pent up?"
Kensuke coughed.
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"Asuka?"
Damon Robinson continued to knock on the German girl's hotel room door.
"Asuka are you there?"
Finally he could hear a reaction on the other side of the door and soon after it was opened to reveal a sad looking red head.
"You okay?"
"Yah."
"Fuyutski just gave the order to withdraw," he said, giving the best smile he could, "so that means were going back to Japan."
Asuka nodded, and then slowly closed the door again. Damon sighed once she was out of sight again. He had hoped that the news would cheer her up a bit. He turned from her door and began the short trip back towards his own. It had been almost three weeks since Shinji's passing and he had still yet to see her smile. She rarely left her room, and even when she did it wasn't for long, and only out of necessity. He could hardly blame her though; he knew how much she and Shinji had loved each other. From the moment he had first met Shinji Ikari all those years ago he had known. "It's things like this that made people want the third impact in the first place," he thought. Personally Damon was glad to be leaving California, even if it was his native land. There were just too many bad memories here, and he missed Kensuke and Toji a great deal, Nishka and Hikari too.
Damon reached his room and quickly opened the door, inserting his room key and waiting for the little green light to flash.
"Hello Rei."
"Hello Damon."
"You packed? Ready to go?"
She nodded, indicating to the pile of suitcases on the floor.
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Cain could feel it. Yes, it was definitely here. He could feel the desert sand pulsating with its power. It was now only a matter of entering the Dirac Sea, and then it would be his.
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"Shut up Kensuke."
"Damn it Toji! You are such an ass! Why don't you just go and talk to her?"
"Because I…I…I don't know, I don't even know why she is so mad."
That was a lie and Toji Suzahara knew it. She had been angry with him ever since that news that Shinji was dead had arrived. He had been unable to deal with what was going on, and had run away instead of staying with Hikari. She was very sad and disappointed with him when he returned, but that was not why she was still as angry as she was. No, when he had returned they had gotten into a fight. Hikari had been right to a certain extent about him not being able to deal with his feelings, but he had felt that she was only seeing things from her own perspective. That was when the problem came. He had lashed back out at her when she had tried him about how disappointed with his actions she was, and that led him to where he was now.
"Come on Toji, everyone can tell that you guys hate being apart from each other, so just go apologize."
"Will you lay off? The only reason you care so much is because Nishka has been spending the night with her instead of sleeping with you."
"Yah and? Is there something wrong with that? Why should your problems cut in on my action?"
Toji groaned.
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"Kaji?"
"Yes."
"The kids are coming home; Fuyutski gave the recall order this morning," Misato Katsuragi said quietly.
Kaji smiled.
"That's great; it feels like I haven't seen them in such a long time, especially after shin…"
He faded out, realizing that he shouldn't have brought it up, but it had just slipped out. Things really did feel different now. To him personally it felt as if he had lost his only son, or perhaps a father. Shinji had always been there for him ever since he had returned, and, because he had no recollection of his past before that date, saw Shinji as a highly influential figure in his life, Asuka as well. He wondered if she would ever be the same again. He doubted it, knowing that she was just "too damn in love." There relationship had always seemed like a fairy tale to him, this big romantic epic, the kind of story that was made into a movie. Sometimes though, he knew that even the greatest epics sometimes ended in tragedy.
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Asuka Langley Soryu followed her Damon and Rei to the ticket desk, and then slowly boarded the 777 bound for Tokyo-3. Asuka found her seat on the aisle quickly without paying attention to the man who sat beside her. She immediately opened the small backpack that she carried with her to produce a CD player. Next she opened a small case, rummaging through various CD's as she did so. At last she found what she wanted and placed it in the player.
"Beethoven's ninth symphony?" The man next to her said, "That was always my favorite."
Asuka turned to the pale young man next to her, his appearance somewhat startling. His hair was gray, and his eyes were an un-earthly crimson, just like Rei's.
"Um, yes. I like it too…I listen to Ode to Joy at the end mostly when I am sad. It…it brings back some memories from a long time ago."
The man nodded.
"For me as well, but, why are you sad?"
Asuka turned away. She still found the topic nearly impossible to speak of, but somehow she felt as if she knew this man.
"S-…Someone very close to me passed away recently."
"I see. Losing a loved one is never easy. But I like to believe that they are always with us, watching over us forever."
Asuka nodded, casting her gaze toward the floor.
"I to," The man continued, "I to was once separated from someone I loved by death."
"I see."
"Yes…But that doesn't always mean that's the end. You can feel them from time to time, living on in the wind rustling in the trees and the reflections upon the water. Can you not feel him still?"
Asuka turned to the man again.
"How did you know it was a man?"
Silence passed between the two speakers, along with a concerned look from one party, and a smile from the other.
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He had drifted on, past the image of Unit-01. He was now even further beyond, gazing upon verdant hills, and blue skies. It was more beautiful than even the last place he had been. A man came and sat next to him, or perhaps just a vision of something like a man, a representation, a collection of thoughts and scattered images.
The Vision spoke:
Why do you hold on to the emptiness?
"It is not emptiness; I am empty because it is gone, not due to it."
You do not like it here?
"It is wonderful…but I wish I could return to those I left behind."
To her?
"Yes."
Then why do you feel such remorse? It was not necessary for this to happen, you could have activated your AT field.
"I tried."
Did you really?
Why do you question my answer? I could not activate it…It was almost as if something was holding me back, some piece of me wishing for death.
Did you wish to die for her?
"Perhaps. Was this meant to be? Was I supposed to come here?
It was your time to die. God works in mysterious ways.
"I…I wish to return to life. I want to see her again."
Death cannot be reversed.
"Really? It has happened before. It happened to him; to the first.
He was proof of God's love; of his faith. He died for all, and was bound to that sacrifice to return.
"I died for her; I died fighting in God's name; I am still bound to a living man."
You are not the same. Your time has ended. It is best to accept it.
"I fought for the first God, and the other, Cain, he fought for a man made God correct?"
Yes
"Then why does he fight the Wraiths?"
………………
"If he fights for the God of instrumentality, then why does he kill his own soldiers? He is my counterpart, correct?"
………………
"Why do you not respond? What are you hiding from me?"
He could feel himself becoming agitated, angry even, if there were such an emotion in this place. Who was this vision he was talking to? "If I am the only one hear, is he just a part of myself?" he thought.
"Why do you deny my wish to return? If it has been before, why can it not be again? Don't you wish to save the world? To save the people?"
You do not understand…
"No! What aren't you telling me? Why does Cain kill? Why does he control death? Why does his agenda differ from instrumentality? Why! What is he! Tell me!
………………
"Why won't you answer? Why does…"
And then the boy finally understood. At long last it was clear to him; the meaning of everything; the reason that things were happening. It was all so simple. He had had control of the world during the third impact, his every wish could have been fulfilled, his every whim, though it was not real. But the third impact was never completed, it had not yet ended. As much as he believed the life he lived to be real, it was still a product of the third impact, still just another measure of a false existence. And that meant…
"He is me! Cain is me! He wishes for the things that I wanted during Instrumentality. I am not fighting for God, I am God! He is not fighting for a God born of man, like the Wraiths, no, he is God as well. This world…it is mine. This world born of instrumentality is my own. I created it. He created it. He is my other half; my forgotten half. I am not fighting God, I am fighting myself. When I ended third impact I wished for the world as it once was, but that was not the world I received, I can see that now. This is a world torn in two; a world torn between the man I once was and the man that I have become!
………………
Shinji could feel the Vision around him melt away; the misconceptions of his mind gone. The wonderful visions were disappearing; reality took the existence that held him. His purpose was clear now, his objective laid out before him like never before. He knew that he was not bound by the attachments of others, this was his world, and he would have to destroy it. Only then could instrumentality be stopped, and only then could things be returned to what they once were.
"Cain. You can no longer hold me. I see the truth now. I must destroy what I once was. I will end this world; I will return it to what it was before; what it was before Armageddon. This world is no longer yours. You can hide no longer. I know now why you killed the Wraiths! You never wanted me to see the truth, you never wanted me to attain the power that is now within my grasp! You would have fought me to the death, and I would have perished, leaving the people of this world to the death you would give them. But no more. This is the beginning of the end. When the last Wraith falls we will finish this for good."
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Cain felt himself ripped from his perch on the Cliffside, he fell, tumbling against the rocky crag as he did so. He ignored the pain, instead concentrating on pulling the souls of the dead to his side. And then, as he fell, he saw it. The black cross; Shinji's cross. It was falling, plummeting down towards him. The massive shape was burning; set aflame by its re-entry into the atmosphere, or, perhaps by the wrath of the one it had once bound. The AT fields found him at last, and Cain felt himself lightly touch the ground. He leapt quickly to the side as the massive crucifix hit the desert soil where he had touched down, splitting the earth as it did so. The Third Child was not attached to it. The object sat only momentarily before it began to shrink and change, becoming more and more elegant as it did so. Moments later the Lance of Longinus had retained its formers shape, and acquired its new master.