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Chapter Six: Delirious Clarity

The Kindly Ones were not beautiful women. At least not at first when Death saw them come to her atop the apartment building where her loving mortal slept for the remainder of the night. Death now stood again as an Endless, no longer bound by mortality, no longer capable of physical love. Almost instantly the forms of the three women changed and morphed, but no matter how many times the angles and colors and general shapes of the Furies changed, Death's mind never changed with them.

"Hello Furies," Death began, her face a cold effigy of her cheery self.

"Death… you were the prodigal daughter of the universe," the first Fury began, a redhead draped in a white robe at the time, "the only one to never falter from her path, after Destiny… why now? Why so close to the end?"

The second Fury spoke, her form taking the shape of a hideously wrinkled old maid covered in a black drab outfit. "Do you think it's acceptable to betray universal law just because it's end-game?"

"You would have to be a fool to do as such," the third, a youthful girl of seven with blond hair and a simple yellow sundress, finished.

Death looked at them all in turn, these beings of vengeance and apathy, and gave a shrug before replying, "Do my reasons really matter? Should I bother caring how you feel? First you force my brother into his own death, and now you pester me. You cannot destroy me, I need only return to my realm to avoid your grasp."

"We could destroy your mortal," the second piped in.

Death paused for a moment, anger lighting a red flame in her eyes. She could not kill the Furies, for they would simple reincarnate or be replaced… she wasn't sure; she had never taken a Kindly One to her realm. Incarnations of vengeance, they also served now as the police to monitor the Endless, for only they could slay an Endless at any given time… except Death, of course.

"No!" Death spat out.

"Then you shall do as we command, child," the first Fury chimed in.

Death smiled. "Child? I'm older than you, little girl. So I suppose I'm to stay away from Shinji?"

All three Kindly Ones nodded in unison. Death felt something tug at her being, something strange and unfelt before…

Heartbreak?

"If you make contact with Shinji Ikari in any way whatsoever, he will find himself in a place worse than Death, Hell or any other such thing this universe can conjure… he will be with us," the third stated, her form now shifting to adulthood. "You have been warned, Death."

The Kindly Ones vanished as quickly as they appeared, leaving Death, perhaps the most powerful of the Endless, to sit on the building's edge. She looked down to see Shinji's window and did something she did not do for anyone, not even her brother as she took him to her realm.

It began with an audible sob, then the burning sensation under the eyes. Her heart felt bottomless pain just before she began to cry.

The sunlight was an uplifting sight for Shinji's opening eyes. It blinded him, at first, but he welcomed it as it warmed his naked chest, reminding him of the events of last night. He stretched in place, (towards his side so his partner would not be stirred,) and slowly sat up with his legs crossed, his back to the rest of the room and to the side of the bed in which his lover laid. He had not seen her yet, but he knew she would be there. It was too strong, their connection, to be severed. He spread the hunter-green window curtains and sat proudly on the ruffled white sheets of his bed.

How could the day become better… Shinji thought to himself. He imagined kissing the love of his life once more, to wake her on this fine morning, and turned, with a smile, to make his daydream into a reality once more.

She was not there. It didn't register, at first, and Shinji sat there, his back bended in an awkward way as he twisted around to see the vacant side of his bed. She was not there. He slowly flipped the rest of his body with his upper body, aligning it to view forward as his smile did not leave his face, although the joy, happiness and satisfaction in his eyes perished. She was not there. The smile slowly dimmed to the miserable frown with which Shinji had grown accustomed.

She's not here. Misato stirred in her futon, her hangover pounding her head into dust, (as far as she could tell,) but ignored the opening and closing of doors in the house.

Shinji's mad dash began to slow down only as he reached the second block, his legs begging him to stop ever since he made it down the stairs. He had quickly put on pants and a shirt to cover himself before he left, his eagerness to run from his anguish pushing him to nearly breaking his clothes. Finally his legs gave away, nearly dropping him onto the pavement of the empty sidewalk of the early morning. He felt no spark in him to move anymore, every last drop of hope seemed spilled onto the path behind him like seeping crimson from his heart.

He clutched at his chest, partly because of its rapid beating, mostly because of the agony inside his soul. He looked up at the metal structures, flat and beautiful, and wanted to die, then and there, just so he could ask why.

"Hello," a firm voice greeted from in front of him.

Shinji pulled his head to an upright position, finally noticing the giant of a man in front of him. Obviously a foreigner, his orange hair and large chin placed him amongst the giants of western folklore, as far as Shinji cared. It shouldn't have mattered to him, his love was severed from him without reason, without explanation, and yet here was a stranger, a foreigner, who drew his attention…

Is he… "Leave me alone… go away!" Shinji yelled at this man who spoke fluent Japanese, his anger directed towards the stranger as though he were the cause for his pain. Shinji stood a bit too fast to run away, grew dizzy, and eventually fell to the floor. The knock against the concrete, combined with his fatigue, knocked Shinji out of consciousness.

It was warm, wherever he was. He realized he was in a sleeping bag, and stood upright, throwing away it's cover. He found his head bumping into the top of a small tent, and slowly crouch-walked out of it, putting his face down to pierce the folds that made it's entrance. The campfire caught his eye first, right before the woman sitting across from his tent. She looked at him from across the fire, her rainbow-colored hair matching well with her eyes, (one a solid blue, the other a solid green,) and stood rather unsurely.

"Good… um…. Waking," the girl began. "Are you going to kill me?"

Shinji blinked at the woman, but ignored her. Staring into the fire, his life and all of what happened caught up with him. It was not a dream, not a nightmare, it was real, despite all he hoped, it was real. I'd rather it not happen at all then happen and go away…

"What's the fun in that?" the girl asked, dancing awkwardly around the fire. Shinji looked up, entranced by the dancing woman of colors. He noticed now her black miniskirt and the fishnet stockings that covered her limbs. Her rainbow-colored shirt seemed like a normal tai-dye until he noticed that her dancing wasn't what made the colors swirl like a whirlpool of shades.

"You're… Endless?" Shinji asked, his pain stopped momentarily by the hope that this creature knew of his love's decision.

"Yep, I'm… something. Not too sure, I'm supposed to be Delirium, but I was once Delight, and soon I'll be nothing, if you wipe me away, like icky-icky stains on an ugly white dress…" She stood still for a moment, glaring at Shinji, before resuming her chaotic dance about the fire, occasionally leaping through it, unscathed.

It wasn't until now that it dawned on him that she spoke fluent Japanese, much like the giant man, and was also a foreigner. "The large man… he's your friend?"

"My brother, he's a nice guy, really, he brought you here. I thought we should kill you just to be safe, but he said it would make no difference. He's right, I was just hoping you'd die."

Shinji blinked at the frankness of his companion, but tossed his concerns to the wind and asked, "Do you know why Death left me?"

"She can never see you again, never never never, ever again. She can see you if you die, but you're not going to die, not that way anyways, and not while she's Death. You'll die after we die, after Death goes away and my brother's book turns to ash in her hands, just like his robe, just like his flesh… before him, she'll meet me in my realm, and my realm will make sense for a moment, and then—"

The rest of her words faded as she rambled. Shinji could only stare into the fire, crestfallen beyond repair, and let the tears well openly from his eyes. He broke into a miserable sob before crumbling into a fetal position, crying out his agony and pain and anguish and hatred for life itself.

Delirium frowned. "Aww, you're hurt. I'm sorry. You know what makes me feel better after being hurt? Going into myself, you forget pain there, because pain is just an idea there, and you don't have to have ideas there, everything is an idea! Even in the pig-pond, which I made up." Shinji continued to cry, barely listening to Delirium. She came over, on the tips of her toes, and kneeled next to him. "Do you want to stop hurting?"

Shinji looked up at her through tear-filled eyes and, between sobs, uttered, "….Yes."

"Here, take my hand," Delirium offered, her hand extended to his body. Deja vu gave him another reason to cry before he lifted his own hand and clutched hers, throwing them both into the realm of Delirium.

"So where's the famous Third Child?" Asuka asked, refusing to refer to him through the plural sense. Despite Asuka and Rei having to defeat the angel together, (both in EVA-02,) and barely escaping with their lives, Asuka was still interested in seeing the boy who reached high synchronization on his first run.

"He… ran away, I guess," Misato murmured.

Rei blinked while Asuka sighed. "Couldn't handle the pressures of being an Evangelion pilot, could he? How pathetic… sounds like a real loser if he can't be man enough to stick around for his responsibilities."

The day was nearly at an end, the sun setting along the coastline. The ride to Misato's house was a quiet one for Misato and Rei, although Asuka seemed determine to live it up with questions and conversations. Despite not having a lot of time to form a strong bond, Misato felt the severing of her connection with the young teenager. Why would he just get up and leave like that…? He seemed alright, aside from… well, morbidly depressed… Misato kicked herself mentally. I should've known it wasn't normal, despite what Ritsuko said… stupid scientists… wretched science…

Destruction was worried. Delirium was nowhere to be found, nor was the boy who loved Death. How could I have left those two alone… I should've known he'd regain consciousness quicker than tomorrow morning…

Destruction already knew what had occurred, he could feel it in the absence of Delirium, in the peaceful nature of the world. Delirium was the cause of the unrest in the world, the reason Angels came to be. She was the key to the end of the universe, and despite knowing this and it's importance, Destruction made the mistake of trusting her. Guess I should have been as paranoid as Dream…

Destruction frowned as he thought of his newly deceased brother before a swirling cornucopia of light erupted above the fireplace, putting it out with it's powerful winds. Two bodies leapt out of this rip in the fabric of reality before it shut off, the campfire lighting up once more by unseen forces. Destruction looked upon his sister, her grin never leaving her face. He then looked down at the kneeling form of Shinji Ikari.

"Shinji…" Destruction began.

"That's quite alright, Olethros," Shinji answered, making Destruction step back slightly. Shinji stood, his head still bowed. His body shifted in position and posture, seemingly sturdier and more self-assured. "I… can see now. I know what I must do." Shinji looked up; his left eye was now a bright shade of green, his right a sky blue. "I have seen the future… it is me, and I must claim it!"