Well, it can't be helped. This is, after all, the final week. What makes me nervous is the fact that you may not like it. Yes, I've been nervous every single time, previous, but I have more reason, today. Why? Becuase this is the last week. No, moreover, it is because I have decided to...You can read it for yourself: It's just below the line in italics.
Sorry if I'm acting weird or different, but I'm honestly slipping into a mild depression at this moment in time. Will try to pull out as soon as possible, of course.
Anyway, I suggest that one good way to thoroughly enjoy this chapter is to read it out loud in a melodramatic voice. Half British, if you can. I'd give you an example, but this is a piece of literary fiction, isn't it? Just try it. It works very well towards the ending.
Anyway, you have a lot to read, so I better let you go on with it.
Good luck!
Written by William Wong
Inspired by Nathan Rawlins
Week Three - Wind
It was a hectic week. Shinji fell for Rei. Rei discovered feelings. Misato went evil. Gendou cracked. Sometimes, a NERV personnel would like to stop what they were doing and contemplate how things could have been worse. Usually, they would fail at doing so; they were pretty miserable after Sub-commander Fuyutsuki took over (he's not doing a good job of it) and Gendou Ikari had to get psychiatric counseling. As for Shinji, he never got around to getting to Rei, but he knew he will eventually.
After a long, hard session, Gendou walked out of the ward, feeling really bad for himself. His head hung, looking at the ground, as he exited and noticed a pair of sandals.
He looked up to see Ritsuko... but no. He saw Yui in her beautiful summer dress. Her golden straw hat and sunflower-head matched elegantly with the white of her dress...
Gendou immediately turned around and ran back into the ward, crying.
Things were tough, now. Gendou, perhaps, has turned too sensitive to be able to live a normal day in his life after what happened to his hair. Not that he was normal before he cracked in the first place, of course. It was all too much for him.
Not so very far away, just down the hall, Misato was dragged along the ground towards her holding cell, kicking her legs about and struggling for freedom. The two girls that took her must have been pretty strong as Misato had had a beer just moments ago. In fact, she was just at the cafeteria moments ago, having that mid-day meal issued to all detainees. The food was enjoyable for Misato. The beer was Yebisu. It was probably the highest point of each of the six days she had been held for. Now it was over, and Misato fitfully rolled around, randomly, like a child as she was about to be thrown back into her cell.
As the doors were locked, Misato tried desperately to get the girls to open up. She had tried bribery for quite some time, but it never worked with these particular girls. The problem laid therein the fact that she was drunk every time she tried to escape, and the bribes boiled down to nothing more than her home-made cooking and sexual favors. At some point, she did hit gold amongst the random babble that she thought up, which was she could get Shinji to perform sexual favors on her behalf (Shinji was the hottest idol in question discussed under the murmurs of female NERV employees in the topic of cute bishounens). However, even that didn't move these girls. The reason lied in their attitude towards Shinji's father...
Today, thought Misato, I shall use force!
She went to the back of the room and ran full-force at the bars and smashed her head on it. Only a small dint was made on the bars, but Misato's skull must have cracked. "Uhhh..." said Misato, dizzy, "I've had too much beer..."
She fell back on her bed.
When she had recovered, Misato racked her brains out to think of any escape plans. She knew she won't escape out of her cell with some odd form of wit. (Hell, no!) And she couldn't see any tools laying about the cell to aid her. In fact, the cell was totally bare of anything except for a glass of water and a bolted bed. Water would be a potential help but I can't think of anything for it except to throw at the girls... and that probably won't work. I might get thirsty if I wasted it, too.
She patted herself over with her hands and tried to find anything she might have carried with her that would help. At last, her hands landed on something that inspired Misato a great escape plan.
Of course! Now, if I just had...
And she found what she just needed.
Perfect. Muahahaha! Now all I have to do is wait...
And so, Misato somehow thought up a great escape plan whilst drunk...
Her chance came two hours later. Misato had known only one weak spot for the girls, and this weak spot was currently walking out into view.
Gendou emerged.
"Hey, look! It's Gendou Ikari!" Shouted Misato, pointing in his direction.
Gendou looked cluelessly towards the source of the noise and saw two girls charging up to him like mad wearing 'We Love Gendou!' shirts and hats! They also seemed mad enough to rip Gendou's clothes right off if he let them, and so he freaked like hell.
He ran back into the ward again, screaming, "I want my mummy!" and started throwing stuff at them to get away. He happened to throw his jacket at them and the two girls screamed crazily!
They started to fight over it. They scratched. They tug. And they punched. Which was a bad combination. They hit each other's heads at the same time and fell unconscious.
Misato watched, amused, and then realized it was her now cue to escape.
She started to rip her bed sheets into a long strip and put it between her legs. I wonder if I've been watching too much Shanghai Noon... she thought as she pissed carefully on it; the purpose of which was to get it to be thoroughly wet so as to make the cloth unbreakable.
As she did so, she casually leaned over to take a drink of water from the glass...
SHIT!
None-the-less, Misato continued as planned. She reached through the bars and managed to get hold of a wooden "We Love Gendou" sign and broke the top bit off. How ironic... she thought as she wrapped the wetted sheet around two bars and tied it onto a knot. To have a pro-Gendou device be turned into that which shall end him. Muahahahahaha! She stuck the wooden stick into the sheet and twisted. Using the strength she developed from episode 7, she twisted the thing till the bars were bent, enough for her to slip through.
She slipped through.
The lady has escaped.
With a new, profound sense of arrogance, Misato went up to the Psychiatric Ward and looked in to see Gendou curled up on the bed, hiding behind a large teddy bear. Misato snickered. She pulled out the fire lighter and a petrol tank from within her jacket, and unscrewed the lid.
Laughing evilly, she spilt a trail of petrol on the ground and threw the tank onto the other side of the room!
She lit the petrol and ran.
In the elevator, Shinji and Rei stood silent, apart. There had been little communication between the two since Rei caused Shinji's father to become unstable. Shinji didn't particularly mind, actually, but this awkward silence prevailed. Shinji looked at Rei and thought. He had wanted to talk her before, and he knew this was his chance. But talk to her about what...? He asked the first question that came to mind.
"Do you ever think about death, Rei?"
Rei replied, "Yes."
"Do you hate death?"
Rei paused and thought seamlessly. "Not especially."
"Oh," said Shinji, and decided to leave it there. This went nowhere.
"But we would not want to lose you, Shinji," she added. Shinji looked back at her in question. What is she trying to say? "Who, then, would pilot Unit-01?"
Shinji looked back at his feet disappointingly.
"And who, then, will complete the universe as a whole and as nothing? Nothing goes without a replacement, though not necessarily in chronological order or in the same form. This is what makes what we are: different; and this is what allows events to happen: through a chain of actions and reactions. Both predictable and both too infinite to measure. What ever happens is to do with fate - no matter how meaningless, and is unavoidable. This makes creation possible, and death inevitable. It all amounts, in the end, to nothing. The thing that came out of nothing can only be equal to it, and only go back to it in incomprehensible fluctuations. Thus our fate, in the end,is to return."
Shinji thought deeply and looked back up. It was not so much as herincomprehensiblephilosophical thought than the words "who, then, will complete the universe" that stirred him. Perhaps it could also imply that he must complete not just the universe, but maybe also the individuals in it? And perhaps it might also mean he, alone, must also complete one individual in particular. It was that that made him think, actually.
The elevator shook as an explosion was heard. It shook violently. Shinji and Rei held on to stop from falling over. When the noise had died down, Shinji quickly pressed the open button in alarm.
The elevator doors opened and revealed a charred, ruined hall, partially ablaze with debris lying about. The lights were out, and the fires lit the room a deathly red; not the passive-type death, but death like that omnipresent presence of a being that could send one to it. Shinji stepped out and looked about, "What the hell happened?"
He realized that this was the hall where his father currently resided! Now, with fear in his eyes, Shinji raced into the burning ward and bent down low, looking. Rei followed close by and they found Gendou crouched into a fetal position behind a bear. Shinji was amazed to see his father wasn't even burnt!
He saw that the large teddy bear that Gendou hid behind had a tag with a sign saying, "Uninflammable."
Shinji shook his head in a fleeting feeling of bewilderment and started to drag his father out to safety.
Halfway out of the ward, Shinji noticed several gas cylinders marked 'Hydrogen' amidst a lake of flames.
Shinji yelled, "Who the hell would leave a couple of hydrogen tanks in a place like this!?"
Rei eyed Shinji as she helped Gendou along. "Fate has come..."
Shinji can tell that hydrogen and flames don't mix without cancelling each other out including its surrounding objects, so he knew he had to get out fast.
"Rei! You get to the elevator and open it up! I'll drag my father after you!"
Rei nodded and went off. Shinji pulled on Gendou's arm across the ground; all the while, Gendou cluelessly struggled to get away. "No! I want my Popo!!!"
Shinji can't let him, so he pulled at Gendou, not knowing how long until the hydrogen would explode. It was an appallingly slow and difficult task, and the fact that there is now an indefinite amount of time before the fiery halls that Shinji is stumbling along on, and everything in it, shall be incinerated, burned in Shinji's racing mind.
He was half-way down the hall to the elevator.
He saw Rei urging him to hurry. "It'll go off any second, now! Come on!"
Shinji sweated and sensed he won't make it at this rate. He sensed that, now, fate is having its own way. Already, the elevator doors began to close. Time waits not, and fate leaves none.
In his last attempt to save his father, Shinji gathered his strength left over, picked Gendou right off the ground and hurled him into the elevator with god-like force. A feat that Shinjiwill seeminglyneverbe able to do again.
Gendou hit the elevator walls, and the doors began to close. Rei saw Shinji for the last time as a dark figure in the leaping flames, standing weak and retired. No will nor strength was there for his existence, like his purpose was already served: To save his father. The doors closed shut and the final explosion's shock waves ripped through a second after...
The elevator rose up carefully and slowly. Nothing was heard after the explosion but for the low hum of the elevator and the ticking of the floor-keeper.
Rei leaned back in the corner and put her hands on her face, covering her eyes.
She wept, managing only to whisper, "Ikari-kun..."
A drop of tear hit the elevator floor near her feet.
Gendou, on the ground, also did this in the same spirit.
"My fangirls..."
The door opened and revealed a lone hallway. Similar to all others it would usually open to only the previous one now ceased to exist.
Rei and Gendou stumbled out silently, one after the other. It would seem as though there was nothing they could do. True, there wasn't. So they did nothing.
As they did so, a pacing sound came into audibility, and got closer. Rei did not respond to it.
For a while, Rei reflected on Shinji's decision to save Gendou at the cost of his own life. Now that she thought about it, Shinji had saved Gendou's life many times. Twice in the past two weeks, in fact. Like when he kicked the bowl away before Gendou was about to digest The Broth. Or when Gendou's hair was on fire, and he had to extinguish it. And now that Rei thought about it, Gendou had not once praised Shinji for it. He never even acknowledged it. He cursed Shinji for ruining his dinner, he had a mental breakdown when he got teased for looking like Santa, now he's complaining that Shinji didn't save his fangirls. Had Shinji's effort and life gone to waste for him?
Soon, Asuka ran around the corner and spied Rei, there.
"Hey, what the hell happened?" shouted Asuka as she made her way down. "Don't tell me Wondergirl blew up the cafeteria!" She said more or less directly to her than in third person. "And where is that bloody Baka? He was supposed to be cooking today, too.
"I want my danish! And my Big M! Where's my dinner?"
Rei was looking at the ground, face unseen by Asuka. She whispered, "He's gone..."
Asuka looked at Rei strangely, for a second. "I knew it! I knew you'll scare Shinji off! Where the hell did he run off to?"
Rei said nothing, but only looked into Asuka's eyes.
And she saw it. Asuka saw that helpless and tearful face... The face of loss.
Gendou, slouched in a corner, moaned to no one in particular, "And he didn't save my fanclub..."
At last, it hit Asuka. Her face was white. Her expression was of a shocked disbelief - stillness. "Liar..." she said, directed to Rei. It was not aggressive. It was not in conviction. Rei did nothing but look back down again.
Asuka fell slowly and weakly against the wall. Her breath was heavy. Her mind raced while she, the conscience, can only observe the blur that tried to reach a conclusion. What can she do? What can she believe? When it done so, she thumped heavily at the wall in response. Her eyelids were clenched.
"LIAR!!!"
And she ran.
Asuka tore through the pathways of NERV and came to her room. The room was dark - unlit. No light shined in except through the door that opened up. Asuka fell into her bed and curled up. There was no lie that could have resided in Rei's eyes. Shinji was gone. He was gone.
Faint sobs were heard. She didn't want anyone to hear it; not even she wanted to hear it, yet it came, none-the-less.
Misato, who just happened to be in the room noticed and walked up to her with a can of beer in her hand.
"There, there..." she said, comfortingly. "It'll be alright..."
"I'm not crying!" shouted Asuka, just once lifting her head from within her arms, spraying tears.
Misato came up real close to where Asuka's face should be with a strange look on her face. "Hey, Ms. Grumpy Girl," she said in a low, mocking voice. "When life gets you down, you know what you gonna do?"
"And what if it was death that got you down?" Asuka shouted under her arms.
"Ha!" chuckled Misato. "You mean that Gendou?!"
"I know!" Said Asuka, beginning to emerge from her arms. "It was that Baka's fault! He bloody killed himself to save his father! What was in his mind!?"
Misato's big grin began to fade hesitantly and turned into a shocked frown at this. Like Asuka's expression when she got the news, it was stillness. Like the shock wanted to stay for a little longer, leering at you literally in the face. But, for Misato, it was not because one died. It was because one didn't. Misato drank her last bit of beer, still with the aimless eyes, and fell back in shock. "No... No! NO!"
Asuka replied by digging her head into her arms again. Misato cried. She saw what had happened, now. She had made another mistake... In a quavering voice, she thumped and shouted, "That asshole Gendou is still alive!"
Her hand crushed that empty beer can.
Back up in Command Center, the place panicked orderly. Radioed voices piled. People ran so and so. The whole place was much busier without the MAGI. The Dolby Digital Surround Sound® 17.4 Speaker/Microphone System, however, were still connected and functioning, meaning Kouzou began crying in the middle of everything. "Sub-commander!" cried Hyuga as he happened to pass by. "What are you doing!? The angel will come in less than 7 hours! Where are the pilots?"
Kouzou leapt wildly at Hyuga - madness and tears in his eyes - looking even more sinister in the red, flashing lights, and shouted, "Shinji's gone!"
"He's run off!?"
"HE'S DEAD!"
"NOOOOOOOOO...!!!" Hyuga's huge scream echoed in surround sound throughout the Geofront.
As for Kouzou, he ran off madly, shouting, "Who's gonna save us all? How will Asuka get out of her depression? Will Rei ever find true love? Can Misato stop her evil? Will the MAGI ever be restarted again? Are there any Gendou fans left on this miserable little planet? Find out next time, IN HELL!!!"
With that, he jumped off the causeway, and plummeted down a rather high height.
Amongst all the panicked screams, the running footsteps, and flashing lights, a figure stooped down in the ruined rubbles of the MAGI. Sifting through the scrap metal and debris. Ritsuko stopped when she found what she was looking for, and gave a sigh, standing up. She held up the object into the light, above her head. It was a brain. Ritsuko knew whose it was. It could be described as a grizzly sight, how the oily moisture glistened in the light, a silhouette in the misty air. But when one truly looked at it, it became a thing of beauty. Looking up, Ritsuko talked to it.
"To be, or not to be? That is the question."
The panic and noise were nothing more than distant whisperings at the back of her head as Ritsuko gave this touching monologue, "Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of Instrumentality... Or to take arms against a sea of Angels?
"And by opposing, end them?
"To die, to sleep no more..."
Her thoughts came naturally. Ritsuko's face stiffened as she knew what had to be done, and she squashed the brain in her hand. "Let them come!"
Ritsuko looked embarrassingly around her as she realized how messy it had gotten in her hand, and looked for a place to wipe the pulp off. She saw Gendou's coffee mug, and she quickly wiped it into that.
All of a sudden, Gendou walked into the Command center to the right of her, sniffling and wiping a tear out of his eye with a handkerchief, oblivious to the flashing red lights and everyone around him. He saw his only way of comfort, and walked towards the mug.
"I need my coffee..."
When Gendou took the mug off the table and looked inside it; he saw brain matter...
As if a flash of a distant memory came across him, Gendou saw the image of Ristuko's mother. He jerked back, dramatically, as if he burnt his hand once again, and shouted in raging fury at the white coffee mug, "I rejected you once; I can reject you again!"
He made an angry power-up scream like he would shoot a beam out of his hands and flung the mug away! The half-coffee/half-brain contents stayed in the mug, splashing violently, until the mug landed on Maya's head. The boiling coffee got into Maya's hair and burnt her head. It seered into her scalp, painfully.
Maya reacted like the hand of Lilith had passed through her. She screamed a blood-curdling scream, she clutched her head but pulled at her hair at the same time: eyes wide.
Everyone in the Command Center laughed heartily.
Maya came back to some sort of sense from being stuck on the spot, and began running about the place until she came to Fuyutsuki's bucket of water; and she stuck her head into it. A great sizzling and a cloud of steam rose out from the bucket like a sigh of her relief.
Gendou laughed as well, lightly, and began to calm down, wiping a humorous tear from his eye.
"Ah... That makes me feel much better." Gendou chuckled a bit to himself once again, and put his glasses back on.
Everyone in the Command Center promptly resumed their panicked state. Still wanting some humor from NERV's staff again, Gendou grabbed Kouzou's mug of coffee and poured it on Maya's head. Maya reacted in exactly the same way once again, ran around and dunked her head in the bucket again. But no one laughed. Gendou looked up disappointingly at the people who paid no attention to it, and grunted a sigh.
Now, Maya has realized that the Kouzou's yellow bucket was stuck on her head. She jumped off the floor and staggered around, swinging her arms in the air.
"It's dark! I hate the dark!" She cried.
Without knowing, she whacked Gendou, knocking him into a rolling chair and sending him down the other side into a giant mirror (installed just yesterday) with a thud. The mirror wobbled dangerously, towering over Gendou, though he was unconscious, after hitting it head-on. It was gigantic - covering the entire wall of that side. Had it broke into shards, the Command Center would become the world's most dangerous dodge-ball arena - or version of thereof.
All of a sudden, Misato walked into the Command Center on the highest level, carrying a full-on heavy artillery like something out of a Schwarzenegger movie, and put up two machine guns in her arms. She looked mad. In both ways. With a squeeze or two of the triggers, she let rip a round of bullets into the mirror!
The mirror fell and shattered into over a million pieces, dangerously flying in all directions. The NERV personnel were all screaming and running for cover.
It was real bad. The pieces were literally everywhere, bouncing around the walls and floor.
Rei came in but to find she was a little too late. She saw, to her right, Gendou lying unconscious on the floor at the other side of the room, surprisingly without much of a scratch. She looked up to her left to see Misato laughing mercilessly, and now holding a grenade in her hand.
Rei screamed, but in slow-motion.
As she ran up to the top level where Misato was; it was like the many pieces of mirror were aiming to get her, flying around her like a swarm of large, evil wasps.
Pieces were reflected off the walls and other surfaces like high-bounce balls.
Rei received small stings and scratches from some of the pieces that dug into her skin.
And now, Misato was throwing grenades at Rei, seeing her as a threat. Misato screamed evilly, chucking one grenade after another. Rei did her best to dodge each grenade. Each exploding and releasing an explosion of glass and debris within dangerous proximity of her. Hurt, Rei still continued. Cut and bloody.
At last, Rei had reached Misato's level. She rolled across the floor, bounded up to Misato and kicked her last grenade away, landing elsewhere, unexploded.
Slow-motion ceased.
Misato saw Rei rise up from the floor defiantly, staring at Misato as if to say "One false move, and you're dead."
Misato saw this, and made a move.
Wham! Misato whipped out a concealed blade from her thigh and swung her arms across Rei's face. The blade slashed at Rei's left eye. Rei screamed in bloody pain, holding her eye as fluids dripped out, becoming redder and blood-redder.
Misato whipped out a pair of Uzis, one pointing at Rei and the other at Gendou, down below.
Rei paused and let her left eye go, looking up at Misato.
If she is too slow, both her and Gendou will be dead.
Now, she saw her last chance.
In one last, powerful attempt, Rei began a slow-motion sequence. She fell back and back-sweeped Misato off her feet with her legs.
The Uzi managed to rip into Rei's arm as Misato fell back; but as she landed, her leg kicked Rei's head with tremendous force.
Rei flew back to the wall, hitting it heavily. Misato pulled out a dagger from her leg, screaming madly, and jumped at Rei! Holding onto each other's arms in a clashing struggle, they rolled back down the stairs. Rolling over each other and finally against the wall at the bottom...
Rei was held up against the wall and Misato screamed one last time, holding the dagger roughly against Rei's throat.
Rei held her own arms - her functioning arm supporting the other.
Misato had the vantage. Rei was in pain.
Silence.
Rei looked up at Misato, unopposing; looking for the Misato she thought she had known. From that look in her eyes, Misato took a moment to realize what she had done. Her eyes remained still, locked into Rei's. Her face changed as moisture grew in Rei's eyes.
"It's me!" Said Rei with tears. "It's your Rei!"
Misato saw Rei's eyes. With a silent shock on her face, she began to feebly return from her frozen position over Rei. Though she was intending to eliminate her, and she could have, Rei - herself - changed Misato.
"Don't you know your Rei?" Rei said, looking for Misato.
Misato fell slowly back, dropping her dagger and leant heavily against the wall; exhausted and ashamed.
Ever so slowly, Misato tried to talk, "I can't do this, Rei..." Misato stared desperately into space. Misato's will had all but gone.
"I know," said Rei as she tried to get off, clutching her hand. "It's all wrong... By rights we shouldn't even be here."
Rei got up and looked over the railing, down at the ruins of the Command Center like she was searching for a light in all this darkness. The NERV staff began to emerge slowly from the wrecks, cut and bruised.
"But we are."
Rei stared off into the distance. "It's like in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Ms. Katsuragi. Full of darkness and angels there were. And, sometimes, you wished it wasn't true. Because how can the world come to this?
"How can we destroy God's messengers and still still be allowed to live?
"But in the end, it's just a way. A path to another world; Instrumentality as it is. Even mankind has to pass. A new world will come. And when they go, they will see to completion. That's why the Dead Sea Scrolls will be fulfilled: to give us comfort; even if the world is this much messed up.
"But I think, Ms. Katsuragi, the world isn't really messed up. It isn't. The world, right now, is simply following the words of the Dead Sea Scrolls, even if we try to stop it. Even if we try to delay the inevitable... because we felt it was all wrong..."
"Why are we trying to stop it, then, Rei?" Asked Misato weakly.
Rei looked back and pulled Misato up, looking into her eyes. "Because Mankind is stupid. And I thinkwe might as well let it go according to the scripts."
Misato looked up sadly at Rei for a moment, like she was slowly realizing the truth behind life's existence... They didn't deserve to. And they won't.
"Rei, that was the stupidest speech I've ever heard."
Rei and Misato was puzzled for an instant. Where did that voice come from?
They spun around to look up to the top of Command Center where Gendou used to sit and saw a bright, white figure. Too bright to see, like the object behind it would be too much to comprehend. One can only try to hear that voice to understand what it was. That is, if they didn't already know who it was.
"Did you get that shirt of yours bleached, Shinji?"
He got off the desk, away from the bright MAGI projector lights, and revealed himself! In all his glory.
"Shinji? Shinji..." the boy in white said in thought.
"Don't you tell me you forgot your name, Shinji? Now that would have to be the most stupidest thing I've ever heard," said Misato.
"Yeah, I'm still Shinji," he said. Then in a change of tone, "And I come back to you, now, at the turn of the time..."
All of another sudden, Fuyutsuki came up, running around with a cardboard box on his head, shouting, "It's dark! I hate the dark!" And knocked Shinji off the entire floor. Shinji plummeted down a rather high... yeah.
Shinji landed on a fire-ladder that was laying on the floor like a sea-saw. The grenade on the other end was propelled into the air, and came back down towards Shinji. Everyone gasped in slow-motion. The Dolby Digital Surround Sound® 17.4 Speaker/Microphone System played tense music, building ever so slowly yet as quick as the grenade falling.
Shinji looked up at the grenade ring, in slow-motion, and thought, With all this happening, I feel a strong urge to... WHAT MOVIE WAS THIS FROM!?
Shinji has fallen flat on his back, now, and he stuck his finger up into the air. The grenade ring fell and planted itself onto Shinji's finger, but the grenade flew off. It rolled towards Gendou, and came to a stop before him. Gendou had finally awakened at this point, and the last thing he saw was the grenade. He drew a sharp breathe to scream, but the grenade went off first.
The grenade blast cleared, but Gendou was not there.
In fact, as everyone looked dumbfoundedly at the blast site, Shinji had to give a cough to draw attention to him and Gendou at his right side. Everyone stared in wonder at the impossible sight and just said, "... How?"
Shinji looked smart-aleckly at everyone. "Like I said: 'at the turn of the time.' What, you thought it was a typo?"
Only people who have watched Lord of the Rings would get this. Sorry.
Everyone still stared at Shinji and said, "Huh?"
Shinji closed his eyes, smiling faintly, and announced, "Let me show you: Flashback, please!"
In a flash, the MAGI screens activated, flooding the place with light, then dying down to an image of a fiery corridor.
Shinji looked down the corridor, the elevator doors shut in slow-motion. Shinji stood weakly, his face with sweat and dark marks and a sad, exhausted face. All of a sudden, all still in slow-motion, two girls popped out of nowhere and came up to Shinji. They didn't seem too slow in motion. One girl raised her index finger to Shinji's forehead and touched it lightly. Her fingertip glowed like ET and Shinji came out of his slow-motion trance.
"Huh?"
The girls leaned into Shinji's face with giant grins on their faces and said together, "You have saved His life: We are eternally grateful!"
With that, the girls grabbed Shinji's hand and swept him away. The hydrogen tanks blew up slowly. Warping and disintergrating the walls. Shinji was well away into the corridors to even witness it explode. It was a blur. Too fast to see in which direction he was being led to. Perhaps it could be described as a Willy Wonka ride in a boat. But before Shinji could think where he saw such an old movie, he realized he was in a bathroom.
Shinji looked around him and saw the two girls looking at him. He thought it was time to say something. "Alright, girls, I think it's about time to tell me what the hell's going on. Who the hell are you?"
One with the brown hair came up and said, enthusiastically, "We're Gendou's fangirls!"
Shinji looked at her then the other with a cocked eyebrow and said, "No, really, who the hell are you?"
The girl smiled, closing one eye and said, "You're quick, Shinji..."
"No, I'm one still with sanity."
"Hah. Well, to tell you the truth, we're not just fangirls," she said with a grin. "We're actually multi-dimensional beings come here to look after and guard Gendou Ikari. Let's just say he's... important. We have many special powers. In fact, the one you've just experienced was us slowing down time. We won't let you in on what else we can do, though."
Shinji's left eyebrow raised even higher upon this.
The other girl looked impatiently at Shinji. "You know. Like teleportation, crazy hair styles, glowing fingers. That whole sortta genie-in-a-bottle thing."
Shinji didn't believe a word of it.
The girl closed her eyes, pressing her lips together. "Okay, then. Go ahead and wish for something."
Shinji paused for a second, then said, "Okay, I want a Big Mac."
Click
The girls transported to a McDonalds venue and waited in line.
"One Big Mac," said the girl with green hair.
"You want fries with that?"
She looked across to her partner. "Sure."
Click
The girls appeared before Shinji again. The brown-haired girl held out her hand. "Pay up."
"WHAT?!"
"I left my purse near the hydrogen tanks."
Shinji grumbled as he reached into his pocket with one hand and pulled out a ten dollar note.
"No change for you, boy," she said, snatching it. With a snap, a Big Mac and fries popped into Shinji's arms. "Believe us now?"
Shinji was awed. "Wow... This truly is the work of beings from the nth dimension! I even had to pay!" He exclaimed.
Shinji had munched down most of the food, and the girl with green hair came up. "Now, I will make my message clear for you," she said whilst Shinji just looked up from his fries. "Clear and simple. We have now given you the power to slow down time."
Shinji nodded a few times with his mouth full.
"The reason is because you have saved His life: We are eternally grateful. The other reason is because we need to take a lunch break back at our nth dimension, which will take about two days, here. Your mission, now, is to protect Gendou, and keep him alive, or else."
"Or else? Why?" asked Shinji, swallowing that last of his food.
"Because Gendou is very special."
"Okay... and the else part?"
The girl leaned closer with narrow, slitted eyes. "You know the Big Mac?"
"The one I ate?" Asked Shinji cluelessly.
The girl leaned closer, her eyes then wide with malice, then becoming slitted just as quickly, "It will turn into something very bad..."
Shinji gulped once, and wished he hadn't... One thought came into mind... "Misato's cooking...?!"
The girls threw their heads back and laughed evilly.
"NOOOOOO...!!!" Cried Shinji, loudly. Misato's cooking! His only hate sprung from his only love!
In Romeo and Juliet, there was a quote that goes "My only love sprung from my only hate!" Have you read it, before?
The girls stopped laughing for the green-haired girl to add, "But the chips will be fine."
Shinji nodded. "Oh, okay."
The brown-haired girl on the right leaned in towards Shinji's face, holding up her finger as if to warn him about something but all with a cute smile and a winked eye. "Now, about that power. There are some limitations to it. You can only slow down time for 5 seconds in real-time. Also, you can only slow down to a ratio of 1:10, one real-time second can slow down to as far as ten relative-seconds. As well as that, your power cannot be used when you're in an Eva 'cos the A10 nerve would be occupied whilst in snych. (Yeah, you thought you'd get away that easy?) It gets a little messy once we get into quantum physics and time distribution at near-light speeds and all the rest. Not that we can't travel faster than light, of course, we have our counter-powers and so forth. But we're getting off topic, now. Gravity may still be the same only when you are not in contact with any surfaces that are in contact with the ground that is over roughly 1.46 kilograms per cubic meter, or whilst you're at or above the relative speed of 7.894 kilometers per hour. If you happen to be American, you'll need to find some mathematician to convert it to the imperial system for you. I've never figured out how they're supposed to know their inches and feets, you know: 'What the hell...?' Anyway, you seem to be Japanese enough to understand what I meant. Where was I? Yes, your limitations. Well, the only thing for me to add is that you must have 'recovery periods' of one tenth your power usage period between each shot.
"Get it?"
"Yeah..." said Shinji, not getting it. "But how do I use it?"
The girl fell back grunted. "What do you think?"
"Like uh... do I have to do some voodoo chant thingy? Like 'by the power of the moon and that...'"
"What do you think we are?! A couple of chicks from some shoujo anime or something?"
"Er, well..."
The girl grunted again and closed her eyes. "Okay," she said, slowly, "think of your mind... as an XBox controller. - That's how it is! - Now, to get into slow-mo mode, you must pull the right, black trigger."
Shinji thought about this and said, "What does the L Trigger do?"
"It's the'brake' button."
"Oh."
"The human mind works well with the controller, subconsciously," added the other girl, "but it usually never figures out particular buttons that cause it to do things that, by your standards, is rather paranormal."
"Oh, right..."
"Now," said the first girl in a new tone. "If you don't mind, we must go forth to luncheon."
With a zap from her fingers, the girls vanished with a flash and a puff of smoke. Shinji was left coughing and wheezing, clearing away the smoke. When he had settled down, he looked about himself and, like a boy in a candy store, ran around gleefully, trying out his new power. "Lift off the ground, pull the switch... Lift off the ground, pull the switch... Lift off the ground, pull the switch..."
Later, Shinji was going up the elevator. He couldn't wait to tell everyone. As he went up, he began to hum with the elevator music...
Wait, this is the music for Misato's Theme! Who composed it? I love it!
Shinji hummed along as he listened to the cheerful music, waiting to get up to Command Center. When he came to, the elevator opened up to reveal a renovation that only Misato could do, and Rei standing, doing a speech. Shinji scratched his head about this, but, as Rei concluded, he stood on top of Gendou's desk. The MAGI projectors happened to be pointing in his direction, illuminating Shinji like a sun.
As the light flooded the Command Center, the MAGI projection (in present-time) turned off.
Everyone in the room recovered their eyesight. They saw Shinji standing there again on the ladder with Gendou by his side.
"So, do you understand?" Asked Shinji to everyone after that ten minute enlightenment.
Everyone in the Command Center nodded dumbly at Shinji, slowly, then shook their heads, slowly. Shinji scratched his head, "Hmmm..."
Fuyutsuki popped out, behind Shinji with a wide grin and said, "So, anyone want to hear my survival story?"
"NO!" shouted everyone.
Fuyutsuki looked at he floor with a frown. "Oh..." he whined.
"Well," Shinji said wih a smile, "I guess you're all glad I'm back, right?"
"Hm! Like anyone would give a damn about the Baka," said Asuka, appearing on the top-most level of the Command Center.
"Wait a minute," Fuyutsuki said, turning around, "last time I heard from you, you were crying in depression--"
"Shut up, old man!" Shouted Asuka, throwing her shoe at him. "And you were sneaky enough to spy on a girl?! Just wait till I get down there!"
Fuyutsuki feebly rubbed his head where the shoe hit him, deciding not to say anything.
In the end, everyone knew everything wasworked out and back to normal.
Not a bad end to the day. In fact, not a bad end to the three weeks they had to endure in NERV. Gendou learned to get a new personality, Misato learnt not to leave the protagonist without making sure he's dead (no matter how anti-protagonist he is), Rei learnt how to cook, Ritsuko learnt what not to wear, Kouzou learnt no one gives a damn to what happens to him, Asuka learnt bad opera, and Shinji learnt the way of the slow-motion.
Not bad at all...
But even then, there was something that didn't feel right; even after that ordeal. They have survived the elements... but why didn't they feel some kind of relief? Something wasstill lurking at the back of their minds... Was something left out, that was incomplete? Had they forgotten something? No one was able to figure out what it was, as they walked up to the exit, knowing full well they were no longer snow-bound.
When they have discovered the doors were rusted in, they thought they found out that was it. Thus, before disbanding, once and for all, back to their normal lives, they had to go berserk one last time.
A large group of NERV staff held an overly large statue sideways like a battering ram, and all shouted as they ran, full-force against the doors. The gigantic finger of the statue - big as the door itself - made a large dent in it.
Ritsuko and Maya held up their Japanese fans and started the chant for everyone to pull back and run at the door again.
Gendou sulked in the corner. Not quite because his new personality made him chronically depressed. It just so happened that the statue was that of Gendou himself, holding his finger up like some great leader and a having serious face. Half like the Statue of Liberty, half like Hitler. Now, it was being damaged against the shutters.
"The finger's pretty good," commented Maya as the finger made a concave bulge in those doors.
"Yeah," Ritsuko replied. "That's what you call a good hand job."
At last, the finger tore open the doors like aluminum foil. As the statue was taken away, everyone gazed amazedly outside, into the bright light...
The hole revealed a nightmarish desert Tokyo-3, empty and windy. Very windy. Wind was everywhere. A hollow, windy sound was all that could be heard amongst the silence of this world. The sky seered powerfully blue where the dust of the wind dared showed it. The wind smelt of an unsettling urine whiff. Too subtle to tell, too present to ignore. The buildings showed the small signs of corrosion like metal rusting in acid. Not a single living soul could be seen to inhabit this dead city.
"I think we opened the wrong door," said Fuyutsuki.
As everyone stepped out, they gazed out into the mountains. It was still green and gay, there. They were gazing west, at the sunset, and they saw something on the mountains... Respectively, it was a gigantic figure. Silhouetted on the horizon.
There was a moment of great silence as they looked upon this thing...
What it was... was not something they had trouble identifying... It was something they had trouble believing.
"It's a giant Marshmallow man..." commented Misato, slowly, disbelievingly.
After another silent moment, Ritsuko shouted in all conviction, "It's the angel!"
So that's what they forgot about... Everyone looked that the giant, puffy figure of a giant marshmallow man, waddling across the mountain in all slowness. Their reaction was: "Awww, It's so cute!"
As if to say "no," the thing gave an emission of wind out into a part of the mountain. The mountain turned into a dull, brown color, and crumbled. And like a shockwave, the sound of a fart of Biblical proportions was heard throughout Tokyo-3!
Everyone, there, was horrified into shock.
"Nooooooooo...!!!"
And just then, perhaps stirred by their screams of despair, two figures came up to them, all ragged and dirty. They had suffered this for the past week, and were the only people in the city in sight.
They were gasping as they ran.
One with glasses shouted, "We claim Sanctuary! You hear me?! SANCTUARY!!!" The two boys were Kensuke and Toji.
"Let's get outta here!!!" Cried Toji, waving his arms madly about.
Everyone of NERV agreed and ran back into NERV in horror, sealed the door, and ran back into the depths of Dogma. They all ran together like a pack of bulls. Even a big dust-cloud trailed them. They didn't know where to go, nor where they were going. They just went where they thought everyone else was. Far away from the evil sight; the wind, the sun.
"What should we do!? What should we do!?!" Cried Fuyutsuki, unnecessarily.
Through the halls of NERV, down the long elevator lines and through into the unlit places of NERV they ran. As they went on, they came to a large room. What caught their eyes was a giant, half-grown, glowing Lilith taking a lunch break.
Lilith took the Lance of Longinus out of herself, and held it with her left hand. With her right, she pulled a large blob of herself out into a ball. With the lance, she stuck the blob on to the end and held it over a large, crackling fire... like a marshmallow.
"That's it!"
It was then that Gendou knew what they had to do.
As the credits roll, the music plays "Without Me".
What the hell was all that? Why did this end so abruptly? Where the hell was the story supposed to be taking us?!
Well, you see, the thing is... That's the end.
What the Goddam hell?!?!?!
Well, the Elements were Water, Fire and Wind and each took place on each week. This is the final week, so the elements end here.
But seriously, what the Goddam hell?!?!?!
Don't worry, this also has an epilogue.
Oh... Wait, I'm still supposed to ask the reader more questions, then, right?
Exactly.
Can they endure this angel's farting powers? Will Shinji actually go on to do anything with Rei or what? Isn't Rei dying from blood loss on her left arm? Will Fuyutsuki finally give up trying? (Yes.) How does Lilith get involved? Will this become an epic battle sequence? (Yes.) Will the writer dare try to kill off another character again? (hint hint) Or are more characters coming into the fic, this late?
I hope you enjoyed it. Maybe have a favorite moment or something? Send along a review, even if it's just to tell me you've read it. Maybe tell me what you thought was your favorite scene.
On a side note, I believe that what is following will become the largest epilogue in the history of epilogues... It will be longer than this chapter, alone.
Bear with me...
Thus, the final Q&A session (or not)- Seatbelts, it's a shame you didn't send along some questions:
Q - Lone Wulffe: "this has got to be one of the best combinations of romance and humour I have ever read!"
A: Weird thing was that I wasn't intending for a romance to occur that deeply, but there we go. The romance was supposed to be a laughable item, but it seems I'll have to take it seriously. Never wrote a romance before. I'm glad I've done it as well as you make it.
Q - Crimson Arrow: "You got something good going here, Randy (can I call you that?)."
A: Randyman is a cousin of my friend. Hehe. So, call me Rando.
Q - dogbertcarroll: "More!"
A: And I'm glad you asked. Yes, more you shall have.
More, indeed.
Update will come as soon as possible, but I'll be making plenty of revisions to try to keep the epilogue as smooth as possible. A month, maybe? We'll see, evetually. I just have one important thing to ask everyone: would you want a hell of a lot of fighting when it comes to the angel? The full thing? Or do you want to have it short and not so long? Tell me before I go on to work on it. The full version, I'd estimate to be about 3,000 words or more.
Words just can't describe a story. Only the story, itself can tell. That story is about to finish.
A slapstick. A war story. A drama. A melo-drama. A detective. A mystery. A thriller. A suspense. A sci-fi. A fantasy. A romance. A horror. A tragedy. A biography. A chronicle. A trilogy. A bi... An Epic.
Fulfillment is nigh.