Reign of the Tabri

I wanted to show some forshadowing of this. But it never really happened...

Chapter 22: Niceterium

Rei's AT-field collapsed when Adam's final attack impacted on it. Logani's took its place before it too collapsed. In a last ditch effort to survive Asuka put hers out as well. When that broke they were truly screwed.

There was no immediate pain; their AT-fields stopped Adam's AT-field from killing them. It was just that they began falling. Disorientation hit them like a brick.

Logani struggled against the arctic wind. It was blowing all three of them around, causing separation. He wanted to stay as close to the others as he could.

Nevertheless they began to drift apart as they fell. Logani changed his struggle to a more internal one. He wrestled for his AT-field to be freed.

Beneath him Shinji was striking out at Adam. Detonation…

The shockwave hit Asuka, Rei, and Touji dead on. They were instantly unconscious, but had stopped falling.

Logani breathed a sigh of relief as his AT-field caught all four of them. He'd just managed to pull it free when Adam was killed, just in time to stop himself from being knocked unconscious. He walked towards the others, pulling them closer with his AT-field. He didn't want it that extended, not with all the strange things that had happened recently.

When his AT-field was the size of a small floor of a house, with the kids brought into it, he looked down.

The fallout had created a respectable crater, several miles wide. Logani could still see the heat from the explosion rising upwards. It stung his eyes slightly.

Then he saw it. It had been blocked out by a plume of smoke but it moved clear of it now. Unit 01 was alive, and moving.

Logani began lowering himself and the others without thinking. He was beyond exhaustion and needed rest. Shinji would be able to protect them or, better yet, get them back to the shuttles.

'All four of them made it,' he thought, 'and Shinji actually beat Adam.' He was truly amazed.

Then Unit 01 turned its gaze skyward. Logani stopped the descending and stared into its large yellow eyes, drawn open with force. Something tugged at his soul.

Unit 01 roared and punched its hand straight down into the ground. 'It's berserk,' Logani realized. He began lowering again, knowing he didn't have the strength to keep them air born much longer. Unit 01 turned back to starring upwards.

Logani felt agitated, as if being caught by someone who knows you're lying. Unit 01 seemed like a mother starring her child down. Unhappy, displeased with it.

It stayed that way. Logani continued to lower, yet Unit 01's gaze did not lower with him. 'It's not looking at me,' he thought, 'At least, not anymore.'

He decided it was deactivated. 'I'll have to get us out of here alone then,' he thought.

He reached the plug and ejected it. He lowered it to the ground with the other three pilots and landed. He cracked it open, fearing what he would find.

Shinji was asleep, resting gently in the embrace of the LCL. Logani pulled him out and set him next to the others. Logani sat on the edge of the plug and set his mind to work.

'Why did Unit 01 look like that?' he asked himself. He looked at Shinji, thinking hard on everything that would make Unit 01 unhappy with its child.

An idea began to surface in his head, but before it could get much further Shinji woke up. He opened his eyes and looked straight at Logani. "Consenesco," he said. His voice was strange, cracked and not seeming to be his own. Logani's eyes widened in obvious disbelief and understanding.

Then Shinji blinked, and seemed to return to being himself. He looked around in confusion. He saw Asuka, Touji, and Rei's bodies and let out a deep sigh. Then he turned back to look at Logani. "What?" he asked.

"H-how are you feeling?" Logani asked awkwardly.

"Fine," Shinji said, "Why?"

"Shinji, I-" Logani stopped when Asuka sat up and yawned.

"What happened?" she asked dreamily. She turned to look at Shinji, expecting an answer.

Logani simply sat and thought as Shinji explained to her, and Rei and Touji when they finally woke up.

He needed to do a lot of thinking on what to do about this.

They arrived back in Tokyo-3 riding one of the Evangelion carriers. They had only needed one to carry them. Unit 01 was the only Evangelion returning. Logani continued to think.

When they arrived they found the citizens of Tokyo-3 waiting. They shouted in joy when they saw the carrier coming in on the outside of the city. These citizens recognized their rescuer they saw it.

Asuka decided to land the carrier on the outside of the city, so as to give them an easy parade route down the thickest road in the city. She ushered everyone out of the carrier, leading with herself.

The citizens cheered as Asuka, followed by Shinji, Touji, Rei and finally they ever thinking Logani, walked down the street. Asuka was in her element, catching thrown flowers and waving to everyone.

Shinji and Touji gave more awkward smiles and waves. They were not below this; they just weren't used to being the center of attention. Considering it was Shinji, he did an amazingly good job.

Rei simply looked around at the happy throng of people. She did not understand why they were here, although she had heard of great parades after a military victory. She cocked an uneasy smile.

Logani ignored everyone, simply thinking in his head. The problem was beyond complex.

Finally, the parade ended on the other side of town. At the graveyard, were everyone who had died in Second Impact was buried. Shinji instinctively set off for were his Mother was buried. Asuka, Touji, and Rei made as if to follow him. Logani held them back, choosing to go himself.

"Hey!" Asuka shouted, "Why do you think you get to go after him when we don't!"

Logani ignored her and set off after Shinji, purpose entering his step. His eyes showed a great amount of fear. His palms were wet.

Shinji crouched in front of the headstone of his mother. He was so tired, he wanted just to sleep right there. The day's activities had beyond drained him.

"It's not time to lie down yet," Logani said quietly. Shinji spun to look at him.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Walk with me," Logani replied weakly.

They set off along one of the paths through the graves. At first Logani did not speak. Shinji opened his mouth to demand why Logani was making him walk aimlessly when Logani finally spoke. "Did you understand," he began, "how the Angels were able to possess your bodies?"

Shinji nodded slowly. "When we beat them, the first time, their souls were sealed inside of us," he said.

"Yes," Logani said, "they were waiting for someone, or something, to free them."

"Like Michel?" Shinji asked.

"Michel worked, obviously, but they had another way to escape."

"What?"

"If you'ddied."

Shinji stopped and looked at Logani. "If I'd died?" he asked.

Logani stopped a little further down the walkway and turned back to face Shinji. "Yes Shinji, if you'd died," he said.

"If I'd died all the Angels would've come back?"

"Just the ones you beat."

Shinji nodded calmly. "But that was last time," he said, waving it off insignificantly.

"Not entirely."

Shinji's eyebrows narrowed. "What do you mean?"

"This isn't the first time the Angels have been defeated," Logani said weakly, "Just the first time they were all killed at the same time."

"Stop feeding me bullshit Logani. Tell me why this matters, now."

Logani continued explaining, "One would just die, by a human with a gun or something. Almost always by surprise. Nothing they could really do to stop it, they had to save their real bodies in case they were ever needed."

Shinji listened on, transfixed by the speech.

"It didn't really matter though. Like I said, never more then a few of them were dead. Even then it didn't last. Eventually, the human who killed them would die, and the Angel would possess another body."

Shinji was missing the point of why all this mattered. His impatience flared again. "Why does it matter!" he demanded.

"Because, Shinji, now all the Angels are dead."

"So? I killed Adam, the Angels are gone. We have no problems."

"But we will Shinji. We will if, no when, you die. You won't live forever, humans never do."

Logani's words sunk into Shinji slowly. "You mean… when I die the Angels will come back?"

"Yes," Logani hissed, "All seventeen of them. When you beat Adam you received all of his children's souls, along with his own. Your death," he paused for emphasis, "could mean the destruction of the whole human race."

Shinji turned his head away from Logani. Tears welled up in his eyes and he looked at his hands, lifting them in front of him. "What should I do?" he asked weakly.

"You have two choices Shinji," Logani began, holding up his right hand palm up, "You could choose to stay alive. This will give you a chance at a normal life. You could go to school, get married, and have kids, whatever you want to do with your life. But you'll always have to worry about the Angels coming after whatever you leave behind. NERV would have to continue to exist, to give the future some sort of chance to survive. But even if the Angels get beat next time, by another pilot, that pilot will have to make the same choice as you."

Shinji nodded weakly, weighing the pros and cons of that choice. "And the other?" he asked.

Logani lifted up his left hand, palm up. "You can choose to die. I could kill you, right now, and take the Angel's souls into myself. Then I'd take Unit 01 and go out into the cosmos. I'm immortal Shinji. The Angels would never plague humanity again. But you'd have no life Shinji. Your life would end right here, right now."

Shinji considered this as well. "How do I know you aren't lying?" he asked, "How do I know you won't just free the Angels again?"

"Because then I'd just have killed you without asking you," he said, "I could do it and you know it. Now, left or right?"

Shinji nodded absent-mindedly. He put his fingers over his eyes and considered the options. He made up his mind after a long rest.

"I choose…."

I'd say cliff-hanger if I wasn't posting the two choices at the same time as this. First its life without Shinji, then with. Believe whatever you want to believe.

Niceterium means "Prize" or "Reward of victory"

Consenesco means "to lose ones strength", "to become old", or to "decay"