Disclaimer: Check the Prologue.
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AN: And here it is, the dark Epilogue. In a way, the perfect fusion of Epilogues A and B would somehow be the best ending, due to the mix with Fight Club. But, I'm standing on the edges, with the Happy and Miserable endings completely apart…
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This is narrative.
"This is a dialogue."
"THIS IS SHOUTING."
'This is a quote/EMPHASIS made either during a dialogue or narrative.'
These are thoughts.
These are mouthed and facial expressions before, during, and after, a dialogue.
This tells where and when the following happens.
(These will be Author Notes)
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"It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything."
-Tyler Durden
Unit's Cage, NERV HQ, GeofrontShinji, exiting the Plug, looked around and, much to his joy, heard several calls and cheering from NERV personnel.
Smiling, he went to the catwalk, receiving several pats on his back. Turning around, he saw Rei approaching him with a smile on her face. He, after deciding to definitely throw all "normality" to the winds, gave her a strong hug, eliciting a blush from her and boisterous whoops from the male techs.
Now both with a big smile on their faces, they turned and headed to the lockers. However, when reaching the exit-door from the Cages, it opened and, on the other side, were Misato, Fuyutski, and ten heavily armed troops.
Misato was saddened, her eyes casting down, and Fuyutski bore a sober face, as if he was about to be dismissed permanently. Or worse. The Cages were quiet, when Fuyutski spoke, loud and stern
"Ikari Shinji and Ayanami Rei, the two of you are to be taken to the Commander's Office immediately."
Glancing at each other for a moment, they relented silently with a nod.
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A few minutes later
The Commander's OfficeThe doors of the office being closed by Misato, now only four individuals stood there: the Commander, sit on his desk, fingers interlocked in front of his face, the Vice-Commander standing upright, on the Commander's right side, and Shinji and Rei in front of his desk.
The Commander, without saying anything, pressed a button on his desk, followed by a rapid push of several buttons on a keypad, which was revealed from within the desk covered by a fake board. Suddenly, all lights were offline, except those on the Commander's desk. A hidden spotlight from the ceiling, which also no longer had the Tree of Sephiroth, was illuminating Shinji and Rei.
Then, one by one, and not in numerical order, twelve monoliths of darkness, emblazoned only with a number and a warning of 'Sound Only', appeared (1). The monolith marked with a '1' spoke, voice clearly falsified by a voice-device
"So, you have rebelled against us, against the better, and only, path of survival for Humanity. Do any of you two bear any grasp of the entire meaning your actions have cost us?"
Shinji, smirking, answered
"Yes, we do!"
Another, the one marked with '6', stated
"Then, perhaps, could you present us your reasons. Enlighten us with your apparent hatred for Mankind!"
Shinji, now sobering, replied
"You wanted to gather all of us, three-and-a-half billion humans, into ONE conscience! And then what? What would be the point in existing, no longer living, then? To view our once-populated cities? We… Damn it, there would be no longer any collectively with individual minds, just a horrible pot with all of our souls mixed together! What was the point then? We wouldn't talk with each other, precisely because there wouldn't be NO INDIVUDUAL OR SEPARATE MINDS FROM EVERYBODY ELSE! If we couldn't interact or communicate, WE wouldn't feel anything! There would be no more sentiments, emotions, moods, aspirations, ambitions, greed, nothing! YOU WANTED TO TURN MANKIND INTO A BEING WITH NO EMOTIONS!" Shinji, chest heaving after his berating upon SEELE and their goals, calmed himself. Again, the monolith number '1' spoke
"Commanders, this will proceed without your presence! You will be briefed after the conclusion of our interview of the two pilots!" Hearing this, the Commander and Vice-Commander headed to a secret backdoor of the office, where they disappeared after passing it. The desk's lights were turned offline. Shinji, gazing back to the number '1' monolith, saw it, suddenly, disappear as well. In its place, there was an old man, with a cyclopean visor covering his eyes. He said, voice no longer filtered and masked
"The two of you acted on the belief that you were making a favour to Mankind, yet you are both preventing it from evolving." His voice now carried disgust.
Shinji, clenching his right fist and scowling, said
"You're just running away from all your problems, all your pains, all that you condemn and regret in your life! Deep down, you don't want to face the reality that if you're unsatisfied with your life, it's your damn fault! Each of us has what we deserve! So you try to find a way to live with no worries, sick of going to bed at night filled with frustrations and self-hate! – Now his voice changed to something with even more disgust than Lorenz's voice – And Asuka called me a coward… AS IF THE TWELVE OF YOU ARE ANY BETTER!"
This caused the SEELE member's to shout back at Shinji, pointing his flaws, mocking his own cowardice. However, Keel was smiling. He banged with his fist on his own desk, causing absolute silence. He then said, voice now carrying a certain admiration
"I would never believe that a fourteen year old kid could plan and go rampant against us. Yet, from you, I'm not so surprised. Unwillingly, Ikari has schemed well your growth. – Now with his smile turning to a smirk, he said – Pity that YOU caused more harm to him than to us! – Now he turned to his right, and dove his right hand behind the desk, probably accessing a drawer. He then pulled a small metal suitcase, which he laid on the top of his desk. He pressed a very long access code on a small keypad of the case, and opened it. Then, he raised it, allowing the two pilots to check its contents. Gasps came out of their mouths, for they were seeing a very small Angel body, labelled 'ADAM'. He continued – As you witness, you have not impeded our attempt to achieve Human Perfection… Each of us possesses a genetic undeveloped copy of Lillith, and I possess as well a complete clone of Adam. You managed only to slow us down. In a year, earlier if possible, we will create Third Impact, and ascend Humanity to a higher position. We are replacing God's throne with ourselves."
Shinji, surprise etched all along his face, looked down and said, both eyes and voice downcast
"Then it was all for nothing… We can't stop you now… We have failed…" His last sentence was murmured, and one could note that a large grief had invaded his soul.
They then heard the Commander's door opening. Both turning to it, they saw a man in a dark suit with a black overcoat enter the office. He approached them, face rid of any emotion. He then dove his hand, calmly, in his inner left side, within the suit, and removed a small handgun and a silencer, from his jacket's right inner pocket. Attaching it to his handgun, he pointed it to the two pilots, eyes reflecting everything they saw.
Rei, with her face never losing her stoic pose, turned to Shinji, grabbed his cheeks with both her hands, raised it until they were staring at each other's eyes, and spoke, for the first time in front of them, voice laden with belief and conviction
"It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything." She then approached his face, and gave him a small kiss, on his left cheek. She then hugged him completely, arms circling him, palms resting against his back, her chin lying against his right shoulder, with her eyes pressed shut.
Shinji, sad beyond measure, hugged her as well, giving her a kiss in her left cheek, and murmuring in her left ear
"I'm sorry that we're both not seeing the sunlight again, Rei… For everything that we went through together, for everything you did for me, know that… that I cherish you so much, Rei…" (2) He felt her tightening her hug, before hearing a very faint bass sound.
He felt her head hit his just for a fraction of a second, before feeling her body go limp, and her hug drop down with something liquid.
He then felt an incredibly hard thing impact on the left side of his skull, throwing him to his right, before losing conscience and lying on the floor, with Rei and tears on his eyes…
Lorenzo Keel, looking at the two bodies resting on the floor, called for his two subordinates, the Commanders of NERV. This was, unfortunately, a serious delay on their agenda, but, overall, SEELE had come out winning with this. Thanks to Ikari's son, the Third Child, they had managed to thwart his plans, and further prevent any possible betrayal, by eradicating the Chamber of Gauf. He gazed at his frozen clone of Adam, and then directed the visor to a folder, which contained explicit data about the 17th Angel, Tabris… Kaworu Nagisa… Now, it would be even easier to introduce him auspiciously in NERV…
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TBC
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1 – Well, from what I've seen in the series, I assume that the reunions with SEELE are all made by holographic projections of everybody.
2 – If somebody was expecting the ILY words, then sorry, but that would be WAY too lame, even for me…
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AN: And here it is the somewhat sappy ending for the fic… Again, don't bother to ask me why I thought about this, it just showed up on my head…