THE RAILWAYS END—CHAPTER ELEVEN
In which a week passes
A blow is struck
Love is remembered
And a door is opened once again…
It was Moon Day, and the Prince of Stories granted audience to a blind thirteen-year old who was a prodigy with a piano.
He sat on a wooden throne in a chamber where well dressed penguins served them cider taken from the dream of an old farmer in Tennessee. When she had finished drinking her refreshment, she set down the glass (a souvenir from the coronation celebrations of Kaiser Wilhelm III), and offered to play for the Dream King.
In a soft voice, he agreed, and swiftly procured a grand piano from the nightmare of a nervous boy in Bismarck, North Dakota, who had a recital scheduled for the next night.
She sat and played, unrestricted by her inexperience in the Waking, and Dream sat and watched.
As she played, Dream felt an emotion bubbling in his heart, one that was both strange and familiar to him. He rubbed his emerald, and saw pale hands passing a lyre to a smiling little boy dressed in the white clothes of a Greek mortal. He understood then, but did nothing.
When she finished, he thanked her and kissed her on the forehead before sending her into the Waking.
Beneath her blankets, Asuka Langely Souhryu dreamed.
She was so small. And when you're a small girl in a big world, you have to fight to be recognized.
Asuka realized this at an early age. It came to her through a cloud of confusion when her mother doted on a doll. Asuka wanted to be special so her mother would stop talking to the little toy.
Yes, you and I both know that Kyoko Souhryu wasn't well, but Asuka didn't know this. Asuka was but a toddler, and it is foolish to believe she could understand anything about the human mind at such an age. But the very young are indeed wise in a fashion, and Asuka's mind connected a plan that would logically work, if this were a more pleasant world: if she did something great, her mother would come back to normal and hug her and love her forever and ever.
One day, Asuka found out that someday, when the time was right, she would be a hero, like in the comic books, and she would save the whole wide world. She had gained the title Second Child. Ha! Let's see that doll do that!
And so she went home after the tests, brimming with excitement, knowing how proud and happy Mama would be.
Up, up to the house she went, a house that was a grim caricature of her old home in Brandenburg, mounted on a steep unwelcoming hill. Asuka would have realized that something was wrong had she the mind of her Waking self, but she was in Nightmare Country now and rationality meant nothing here.
She kicked off her shoes—mindful of her mother's wishes for a clean house—and raced up the stairs. As her little legs took her to the top, she almost toppled a vase as she turned a corner into the darkened hallway that led to her mama's room.
"Mama! Mama! I'm a pilot! Mama!"
Her excited cries echoed through the hallway as she ran towards her destination…only to smash bodily into a pair of tan-colored pants.
Dazed, she looked into the nervous deep blue eyes of a teenaged boy. He licked his lips, and gave a quick look around the hallway before saying, "Hi, Asuka,"
Who is this man? Does Mama know him?
Shinji…Oh God its Shinji…Shinji
Where's Mama?
No, this isn't right he's dead he's dead he's dead Mama's dead…
Asuka's face showed a variety of emotions, from fear to astonishment, suspicion to recognition, but it was mostly confusion.
"Excuse me," she suddenly said, before moving to continue on her journey toward the end of the hallway.
"Wait! Asuka, don't…I mean…"
The little redhead turned toward the sheepish boy, now looking even more uncomfortable as she stared at him expectantly.
"Well, what is it?" she demanded impatiently, having no idea why this boy was being such a pest.
"Asuka," he murmured, "y-your mother is…dead,"
What…no, no she isn't!
Yes…
NO!
I know…remember…
"Shut up! Don't you dare say that! Go away!!"
And she ran toward her mother's room…to face the truth.
On True's Day, Dream of the Endless left his kingdom to visit two acquaintances of times long past—an exiled devil and a banished angel (of the more benevolent kind).
The two lived as lovers on another Earth, and they had been tasked to watch over another angel as she slept for a century, awakening when her lost love would be reincarnated.
After paying respect to the sleeping lady, he dined with the two exiles, making polite conversation with them. When the time came for the two to sleep, he ignored their protests and sprinkled his sand into their eyes.
He left the angel in the former devil's close embrace, pausing to stare at a tree for a few moments before going home.
This time, the boy was in the hallway waiting for her. She stopped a few feet away from Shinji Ikari, looking up at him with a glare.
"Get outta my way," she commanded testily. Her mother was at the end of the hallway, waiting for the good news.
Dead…dead…
"She's dead, Asuka," whispered Shinji, kneeling to face her, "She's gone…you have to accept it."
Gone…dead…accept?
"Get out! Leave me alone!"
"Listen to me," Shinji barked, surprising even himself, "Asuka…Dre—my lord told me that you have to let go of this nightmare. I—I think th-that if you need to l-let go of this nightmare, you have to let go of…"
"SHUT UP!"
The scream sent the boy onto his posterior, and the girl stepped on his stomach on her way through Destiny's Garden.
On Odin's Day, the King of Dreams visited a village that bordered on an African desert. He briefly spoke to a storyteller who was tending to a group of sick children. Though the storyteller did not know where they came from, he told the children many tales that night and they slept peacefully for the first time in many days.
The Oneiromancer then walked across the desert, deep in thought. His bare toe hit against a piece of green glass, and he stared at it for a moment before picking it up.
As he regarded it, a cauldron of great shame, pain, and personal hatred within his heart bubbled over and he crushed the glass in his hand.
As he watched the shards tumble into the sand, he wished he knew why…
Shinji stood at the door now. He and the girl now stared at each other in the Sohryu entryway, which was twisted by Nightmare into an extremely foreboding room with a ceiling that was so high up that it was obscured by thick darkness.
Again…again…
Dead…here…
Mama?
Shinji.
Gone…here…
"I'm doing this for your own good," he said finally.
"I have to see Mama," was Asuka's reply, moving forward purposefully.
He grabbed her arm…
They are dressed in humiliating leotards and loose shirts; he accidentally hits her arm as the music begins.
A shocked Shinji reached up to touch the bruise on his cheek. For a moment, the redhead he had known was there and had struck him.
The little girl stared at him, her right hand clenched in a small fist. Her eyes darted between the hand and the boy's battered face, unable to believe what she had just done yet remembering when her action was commonplace.
And she ran up the stairs…but she only walked down the lonely hall, unsure of herself, to her mother's room.
On Thirst Day, Daniel summoned Matthew, and they toured the skerries together, counting each and every one.
They then lunched in the dream of a middle aged man in Dayton, Ohio, who was dreaming of the first date he had with his wife, who had just been committed to an asylum that morning after she tried to kill him with a carving fork.
When Asuka Langely Sohryu entered the house, it occurred to her that something was wrong.
Her little legs took her up the stairs, and when she turned, he was in the hallway.
"A-Asuka?" he asked softly.
Who is this…?
He is above me, risking his life. His Eva has my hand…the Eva's hand…why…?
"I want to ask you something," he said softly, "Have you ever opened any of these other doors?"
Asuka blinked at him. What a strange question…why would she open any other doors when she knew exactly which room her mother would be in?
Shinji did not wait for an answer. He reached over to a nearby door and opened it.
Kyoko Zeppelin hung from the ceiling; the doll lay beneath it, its head torn off.
"Mama?" whispered Asuka quietly. She would have tried to enter the room, but Shinji had walked further up and opened another door. He then gently guided her to it.
The same scene: Mama, doll, rope, room.
"What are you doing?" she demanded, turning toward him with tears beginning to form in her sky-blue eyes, "What happened to her? Why…?"
"I didn't do anything," he said, his calm voice laced with nervousness, "Asuka…I think you're doing this to yourself."
"What?"
"Asuka," Shinji bit his lip, searching for the right words; they came, "You—you keep having this nightmare, okay? You don't like it; you keep crying every time you have it, but you won't let go of it.
"You—you're addicted to it, like a drug. It hurts you, but you go through it. And it affects you, drags you down when you're awake."
Silence.
Truth.
"Damn it, Asuka; I've seen it killing you! You hurt everybody else when you can't hurt yourself anymore for the day; everywhere you turn you want to see the world shaped by your nightmare, so you can be a tragic hero. You'll never get anywhere if all you want to go is here," he said gesturing toward the scene beyond—…
A loud thump interrupted him and he turned to look at her. Then everything was black and scrambled white, before Asuka woke up in her bed.
She climbed out of bed, and slid her door open to find Misato shivering against the wall down the hallway. A quick jog took her beside the trembling major. Instinctively, her arms went around the older woman as Misato began to speak shakily.
"I-I-I j-j-just wanted-s-s-som-um-um wa-water,"
Asuka wasn't able to sleep after she helped the major back to bed.
Fire's Day saw the Dream King crafting dreams and nightmares for hours.
He fashioned a beautiful doll to accompany another as they dove into the churning nightmares of a traumatized child in Tibet.
From a nearby fog he created the Ghost of Whispers, and sent it to a five year old in Oregon who was hiding a terrible secret.
And in his throne room, he summoned a globe into his hand, and watched the unfolding events.
When she entered the house, he wasn't there, in either the entryway or the hall.
At first, her instinct was to go immediately to her mother's room…
She's deadAsukagoneAsuka
Shinji…
She stopped in front of one door. It occurred to her that there was something strange about this door, as if it gave a light that she could barely see. "See"? No, that wasn't right; it was as if it could appear only to the back of her mind, compensating for the absence of real light.
For a few moments, her head turned between the strange door and the path to her mother's room.
…to yourself…
She reached for the knob.
I am coming.
Through the license granted me by the One named I AM I descend upon this world.
Every instinct, every thing taught to me by my elders tells me to stop, that this is wrong.
But I stood proudly with the few of my brothers who would allow their feet to touch base earth for this most blessed cause.
If I succeed, Humanity will suffer no more.
If I fail, another of my brethren will come.
I am Bardiel.
I am coming.