We Are (Not) Cursed

by BardInTheForest

(Pax Ikari vol III) When Shinji Ikari rides the train from Nagano to Tokyo-3, he is made the epicenter of a reality altering event. With the reality he had occupied now changed forever, he must conceive of a future that will accomodate diametrically opposed ethos. A man who has never known love is now responsible for the fate of the very humans he's been kept from, for good or ill.

22. Chapter 22

+++++ NERV. (Thursday, August 26th, +5, Waning Gibbous 4/4)

"We're going to need another sample, then." Naoko had read the results, observed the evidence on the slides, and reached the same conclusion as her daughter. "We'll also need a female donor, probably several."

Kyoko was chewing on her thumbnail, growing ever unhappier. "I'd almost rather do live trials, but that would necessitate more than a few unsavory things."

"There's more," Ritsuko groaned. "Look." Pulling out another concave slide, one that had been placed in cryogenic suspension as per protocol, she set it on the microscope. Frozen crystals of those normal ancillary solutions were present, immobile but slowly thawing, while around them the sperm were still actively exploring the environment.

"That's just…." Maya had grown angrier the longer she'd thought on what they were going to have to do to ensure humanity's survival. "We have no control group, we have no pre-Event sample, we're groping in the dark and he's going to be the one to suffer the most! I hate this."

Yui, who had been silently pondering the situation for some time, spoke up at Maya's outburst, "Thank you, Lieutenant, for remembering our obligations to protect his humanity as best as we are able. Your position is, as always, well stated. I will contact Kirijo-san myself, and inform her of our current dilemma. While I am his biological mother, I have confidence that she has begun bonding with him in a truly maternal manner. Once we have her perspective on his situation, I will need both you and the younger Doctor Akagi to help me implement our plans in a manner that reduces the harm done to my son." With her fingers tented just below her nose, she looked at the other four women present. "I will burn this world to ash before anyone harms him again."

+++++ Tartarus. (Thursday, August 26th, +5, Waning Gibbous 4/4)

At Yukiko's best estimate, Shinji had been carrying her for over two hours without once complaining. From her occasional looks up into his eyes, she believed with all of her heart that he could carry her for another two weeks without once complaining. She'd taken to looking behind them, allowing him to keep an eye on the area ahead of them, so that someone was watching their backs. She felt odd, after a fashion, that she'd not been terrified of them becoming lost in Tartarus. The man carrying her seemed so steady, a glacier of forged titanium in the shape of a warrior, that the most she was concerned about was the eventual need for a bathroom.

A sudden halt, after they rounded yet another corner, brought her attention back to the fore. A great blue door stood glowing in the center of the hall, not the kind that would typically signify an exit from Tartarus. "That's…not something I've seen before."

"I apologize, but I'm going to have to set you down." Kneeling easily, he set her on her feet while keeping his eyes averted to not look up her shorts or shirt. "Please stay behind me while I open the door…in case it's a trap."

She was far more upset than she thought she'd be at his having to put her on her own two feet. "A good idea. I'll be just behind you, though. If something grabs you, I'd rather not be alone in here."

Standing upright, he frowned in thought, then nodded. "Hold onto the back of my shirt, tight. We shouldn't get separated, if you're holding onto me." Watching as she shuffled behind him, he started towards the door as soon as she had a death grip on his shirt. By the time he reached the portal, he'd drawn his long dagger and reversed his grip. "Here goes."

The door crept open, swinging away from them, revealing a boundless sea of calm green water. Three short steps led down to a platform more than large enough for both of them to stand upon, stairs that he took without consulting the woman behind him. "Shinji-kun…I've never seen anything like this."

"Which means we should get an idea of what's going on," he countered, gently. "The monsters don't go away because you hide under the blanket, Yukiko-san. All that happens is you don't see how to stop them next time."

The short mental argument about whether or not he'd just actually rebuked her was over by the time he'd pulled them to the far edge of the platform. Yukiko let go of him as he knelt down to dip his weapon in the water. The vaguely nighttime sky above had no stars or lights to mar it, and the ocean had no true waves to speak of. The surface rolled evenly, the physics of which made little sense until she snapped back around to see that the door and stairs were gone. "Oh no! Shinji-kun!"

"Yeah…we started moving as soon as we stepped down onto this." His voice was detached, his motions calm. "We're fine. This place has rules, of some sort. It has to, or we'd never have made it out the first time." Standing back upright, he began to spin his dagger idly. "I'm going to try something, ok? I just…need to look at you for a bit."

His blush was adorable, the way that he acted as if she were royalty charming. She could not help but blush and smile coyly in return. "You may look at me as often, and as much, as you would like. I know that I am safe in your presence."

His blush deepened. "I…don't want to be rude." Closing his eyes and concentrating on what he saw in her, much the same way he had with Mitsuru, he began to try and place what she was towards weapons for her to wield.

Much as she had admitted, she wasn't someone who would stand toe-to-toe with an enemy trading blows, or striking and dodging. She truly wouldn't wield a weapon that would, itself, cause harm. She wasn't without the capability of causing harm, but she was the weapon. Or, more precisely, her spirit. She had a faith in herself, in her capacity, that seemed to only want for others to accept that what she did, she did of her own volition. She would fan the flames of hope, spread the fires of purity, healing friend and incinerating foe. You would trust in her, or you would burn for your lack of faith.

"Oh, wow!" Yukiko's surprised cry drew Shinji's eyes open, showing her holding a single fan constructed of metal feathers so ornate and fine that they appeared organic without close inspection. Flicking her wrist, she snapped the fan closed and open several times before bouncing with childish mirth. "That's so awesome! How'd you do that?"

"I…I just think of what I see, when I see you. Somehow that creates a weapon suited to you." He couldn't stop his smile at her joy. "I found out I could do that after Pixie-san showed me how to arm Mitsuru-san."

Her head tilted slightly. "So you see me wielding a fan?"

"Not…exactly." He opened his mouth, then closed it and shook his head. "It's hard to describe. I wouldn't do it justice."

"Aww-OH!" Stepping back as she saw a giant begin to arise out of the water, pointing towards it she shook her head in denial. "Th-that's…."

Shinji turned, seeing what he recognized as the beast that had been attacking Tokyo-3 before the Event. "…It's an Angel." Bringing his weapon up into a ready position, he resolved that whatever happened he wasn't going to be found lacking for effort.

Halting at a point where only its waist was out of the water, Sachiel, the Third Angel, turned its mask a bit to the right as it looked down upon Shinji. Nodding slightly, it reached out and touched the water between them. A rise of stairs, made of water but as solid as concrete, flowed into existence. A staircase that ended a 'polite distance' from Sachiel's mask.

The entire situation was both baffling and farcical to Shinji, but he couldn't immediately think of a reason not to climb the steps. He doubted his dagger would overcome something that could control the very water they floated on, but there was every chance that he might be able to sacrifice himself to buy Yukiko a chance if he was close enough to at least try.

"Shinji! What are you doing?!" Yukiko hurried to move after him, grabbing the back of his shirt.

"Accepting an invitation." He looked back to the platform they'd been standing on, and watched it sink into the water. "I guess you are too." He watched her turn around and see, watched her groan, then watched her steel herself and take her place at his side, grabbing his hand.

"I'm going to hold onto you. You can't swim, I can. If we end up in the water, relax and trust me."

He'd been a part of worse plans. "Ok. Let's climb."

The 'climb' still took several minutes to accomplish, as the distance between them and the enormous Angel was deceptively vast. At the halfway point, Yukiko whispered, "How are you so calm?"

"I'm not."

"I think that's the first lie you've told me with a straight face," she snorted. "You're not shaking, you're not sweating, you're not hesitating. This entire time you've been rock solid!"

He shook his head, keeping his eyes on Sachiel. "That's only because I have to protect you. I can't do that if I'm freaking out at everything."

"So you're calm!"

"No, I'm really not," he replied without any heat. Squeezing her hand gently, he tried to refocus her on the climb. "I can't really explain it right now. If I get out of this, I'll try to explain later."

"I already told you, no dying. It's not allowed."

"As you wish." Once they reached the last step, he used her grip on him to move her behind him. "Please…behind me."

When Yukiko checked her footing, she saw that the stairs behind them had melted away to the ocean below. "Uhm…not too far behind you, please. That's a long drop."

Sachiel's mask turned the other direction, rattling slightly when it did. A 'veil' of water began to flow between them, displaying the word 'PEACE' in thousands of different languages.

Understanding several of them, determining that the rest that he didn't know likely also said the same, Shinji looked between the veil and Sachiel a few times. "You…don't want to fight?"

The word 'ENEMY' appeared, written in the same number of languages, each example struck through with a line.

"He's not our enemy?" Yukiko frowned in doubt. "He was tearing up the city."

'MISUNDERSTANDING'

It made sense that there would be some form of misunderstanding at play. Shinji began putting pieces together, "You aren't with the alien I killed, then? You didn't come back, after everything fell apart…and if you're seeking peace, you likely wouldn't have sent someone else to try and kill us all."

'DIFFERENT'

"If it wouldn't bother you terribly, my dear nephew," a voice Shinji recognized spoke from his right, drawing his attention towards her, "I would like to offer my services as an interpreter. I know how taxing it is for you to communicate in the traditional manner without violating the rules."

"Qodeshah-san!" Without removing his grip on Yukiko's hand, he shifted her to where she could safely stand beside him on the platform and then tried to reassure her, "It's ok, she's someone who helped me figure out what was happening after the train crash."

'AUNT'

Setting aside Shinji for the moment, Qodeshah looked back to Sachiel, "Yes dear?"

'EXALTED'

"Oh, I have no doubt he's paying attention. Don't worry, I'm not here to interfere."

'RAGE'

"I'm certain he is. This was a bold move they made, and we'll have a hard time recovering anything without luck."

Sachiel hesitated, its mask shaking as it thought. 'PROTECT', once more the word itself was struck through.

Qodeshah smiled gently. "I know he can't. But if we venture nothing, we gain nothing. I have confidence in my choices." Blowing a kiss to the Angel, she turned back to Shinji. "Now, my sweet, who is this charming young woman with you?"

"This is Yukiko Amagi," Shinji introduced his ally, joy in his voice at what he was able to add, "she's been trying to help me learn how to protect everyone." Looking to Yukiko, who was eyeing him with disbelief, he gestured with his free hand to Qodeshah. "This is Qodeshah-san, she…helped me figure out what path I should walk."

"He exaggerates, of course," Qodeshah demurred. Walking down invisible stairs to stand just before them, she reached over and tickled Shinji's cheek. "I can't imagine a world where he doesn't strive to keep everyone safe."

His joy faded slightly as his nature rose to the fore. "Only those who deserve to be safe." Shifting away from the topic before his anger could overcome him, he flicked his eyes over to Sachiel. "Your nephew?"

"The son of my sister, thereby my nephew. The relationship is slightly more complex than that, but it's easier for you to understand if I frame it that way instead."

Yukiko found her tongue, despite still struggling to overcome the shock at finding out that Shinji knew a woman as powerful and beautiful as the one before them, "You said you could interpret?"

Qodeshah shifted her attention to Yukiko, giving her a warm smile of approbation. "I can, Snow Child. The shortened version of what he's wishing to accomplish is that he's offering his aid. You see, without certain…connections, we'll call them, you and your sisterhood's efforts at helping Shinji will be all for naught."

"How can he help?" She wasn't certain that what she felt for Shinji was anything but youthful attraction, or simply a matter of proximity. She was positive, however, that she wanted to help him. His success was everyone's success, and his defeat would only hasten everyone's death.

'FORTIFY'

After reading the word a few times, Shinji frowned in confusion. "He can make us stronger?"

"He can make her stronger," Qodeshah corrected. "He's proscribed from interfering with you directly, by rules older than any of us. She is fair game."

He looked back to Yukiko, his frown becoming one of protectiveness. "I…don't want her in danger."

"I don't want to be in danger either," Yukiko replied with a pat to his chest. "But if we're going to keep being pulled into Tartarus at random, being stronger means I can help keep us alive. No dying, remember?" Turning to look at Sachiel, she asked hesitantly, "How would you fortify me, uhm…sir?"

"He would give you access to a number of spells that you otherwise would not be temperamentally suited to using, as well as granting you a degree of greater physical strength." Qodeshah twirled her fingers to indicate the lack of descriptiveness she'd just presented. "It's nothing harmful, directly. But the fortification he provides will take a less defined shape due to that fortification being different for each person he might have granted it to. That you are here, and not one of the others, changes the nature of his gift to you. However," she raised a finger in caution, "the gift comes with a price, as all worthwhile things must."

Shinji growled, "Qodeshah-san…."

"What is the price?" Yukiko squeezed Shinji's hand twice, urging him to silence.

'BOND'

Coughing politely, Qodeshah tried to hide her chuckle. "That…might be the least descriptive term for what you're inferring that I've ever seen, you know that, right?" Her amusement evident, she ventured to translate more appropriately what would be expected, "If you accept his gift, you will need to tie your fortunes to Shinji forevermore…but in a way that might not quite make sense to you at first."

"No." Shinji let go of Yukiko's hand, taking a firm step to the side. "No, no, no. No."

Taken aback at the vehemence, and stung more than a little by what seemed to be a repudiation of her as a possible relationship partner, Yukiko couldn't keep that hurt from showing in her face. Looking between a slightly irritated Qodeshah, a glowering Shinji, and the titanic Angel, she tried to think of the right thing to say, before switching to trying to think of anything to say.

Qodeshah, however, made the first attempt, "Shinji, you can't expect-"

"No." His fist clenched tight around the hilt of the dagger he was wielding. "Nein. Non. I can say it in as many languages I can think of, if that's what it takes to make this clear, but I am not going to sit back and let a good woman be harmed by tying herself to me for a weekend, let alone forever! She knows what I've done…at least some of it. I get that she might think it's for the greater good to accept this kind of penance, but I'm telling you right now you can stuff it. She has her whole life ahead of her, and when we get everything back she'll have her pick of millions of good men to spend her life with…or women, whatever. I'll just work harder. I've worked for worse reasons, I've worked for far worse people…no."

Having stood by and heard him speak, Yukiko realized that what she'd initially thought he'd been thinking when he'd said 'No' was nothing of the sort. It wasn't her that was being repudiated, and that was both noble and the best proof she could ask for that what she was about to do was the right choice to make, "How would I be tying my fortunes to him?"

"Yukiko-"

She turned on him with fire in her eyes, "You, sir, do not have the right to make my decisions. If I choose to do, or not to do, whatever it is that is being asked of me it will be me that decides! I am no fragile doll to be placed on a shelf and admired from afar." Taking a step towards him, she jabbed him in the gut with one finger. "I am no meek little child to be summoned or dismissed at your pleasure, nor am I some millstone to be carried about as if I was an invalid. I may not have chosen the burden of fighting Tartarus, but I will not shirk my duty."

His voice was soft, his tone mournful, "You don't know what you're getting into…I'm…I'm not a good person."

"Neither am I," she sighed, changing her poke to a caress. "We all have evil in us, we all have things we hate about ourselves. I am going to decide what's best for me, and I'm going to do so by including what may be best for us. Ok?"

"…Yes ma'am." His confidence gone, he looked down towards his feet and folded inwards.

If she hadn't seen Yukiko close her eyes and swallow back her anger at Shinji's trauma, Qodeshah might have chastised her for being as rough as she had been. The ignorance of youth gave her enough of an excuse, and benevolence remained the path forward. "Are you familiar with the conceptual power emotions provide? How they are all capable of both positive and negative interactions with the environment around you?"

Yukiko's brow knit. "If I'm understanding you correctly, you're talking about how anger can drive you to protect people, or drive you to harm them, depending on how well you can control it."

"That is one example, yes. Another, and one far closer to the point, is how love is capable of driving one to withstand all manner of torments…or driving one to inflict the same." She took note of Yukiko's hint of disgust, grateful that she didn't have to spell out the subtext. "In order for this gift to succeed in providing what is required, you will need to…help him to love you." Shinji's muscles tightened across his entire body, his opinion evident. "In return, you will have to come to lust after him unequivocally."

"L-lust?" Her cheeks bloomed red, both at the stammer and at the word.

"And you, alone, will not be the only one who must do this." Qodeshah spread her hands helplessly. "Or, I should say, our chances of success increase for each woman so dedicated. The one we face is incredibly strong, and the capacity to fortify both yourself and him is the only way we stand any chance of victory."

Yukiko's mouth opened several times, snapping shut when she realized what she was about to say. After struggling to formulate a response, she danced her fingers against her thighs and asked again, "But…why lust?"

"My sweet, I need you to do me a favor." Qodeshah hurt inside at how Shinji looked at her with a readiness to throw himself off the platform, if that's what she asked of him. Creating a coin from nothingness, she handed it to him while maximizing the amount of time her hand spent against his. "When I ask you to, flip this coin, then catch it and place it against the top of your other hand so that the Snow Child may 'call' it."

"But how does this answer-" She cut herself off when Qodeshah motioned for patience, watching Shinji sheathe his dagger.

"Once he has the coin securely in hand, I would like you to declare whether 'one' or 'zero' is showing. We will do this ten times in a row, without pausing to analyze anything, and then I will answer your question." With one hand, she urged Shinji to perform the necessary action.

The coin went up in a tight, quick, loop as it tumbled end over end, then back down to where Shinji caught it and slapped it against the back of his hand, keeping his palm over it. Yukiko sighed, shrugged, and called, "Zero." His hand lifted up, and there on the coin was in fact a stylized 'zero'.

"Again."

The act repeated, and Yukiko decided to keep the call the same for the moment. "Zero." Once again, 'zero' was displayed.

Eight more times, eight more correct calls. Qodeshah took the coin away from Shinji, offering it to Yukiko to look at in wonder. Watching the young woman feel the weight of the coin, analyze it from every direction, and attempt to puzzle out the connection, gave the Elder being hope that she was right. "On another version of Earth, in another universe, there is a young man with powers and responsibilities that would crush nearly anyone else. He is surrounded, and I mean that quite literally, by women who love him. He is attempting to wrest control of the entirety of all known reality away from the person responsible for the death of the entirety of your universe, save for what remains in Japan. His powers alone are insufficient, much as Shinji's are. He not only accepts this state of affairs, despite having the capacity to correct this flaw, but he endorses it. He knows, to his very core, that power has a corrupting influence over any mind, no matter how powerful. The more power, the more corruption."

"So you…what, want to recreate him?"

Qodeshah barked out a laugh. "Oh me, oh my, no. Not only is that rather impossible, it would be horrifically stupid of me to try. You'll note that I said he was surrounded by women who love him."

Flipping the coin herself, she caught it and slapped it down on the top of her own hand. "Zero." Lifting her hand, she saw the 'one'. "I don't understand…why lust?"

"Because there's only so much room in any spectrum for any one facet of that spectrum to hold sway. If you placed your sun and the first planet in your solar system directly next to one another, which one would you see?" She accepted Yukiko's slow nod as understanding. "Love is, and I pray will forever be, occupied. There are other emotional states that are, as of yet, unoccupied."

Yukiko tossed the coin again, this time keeping her hand over the top of it. "Shinji…call it."

"It's one," he answered, quietly.

She lifted her hand so only she could see, and saw that it had indeed landed on 'one'. "This…man." Her eyes narrowed. "It's another version of Shinji, isn't it?"

"It is."

"You said that I have to learn to lust after him…why does he have to learn to love me?"

Qodeshah's lip curled slightly in chastisement. "Because it would be unthinkable for him to remain ignorant of what it means to truly love. He'll never learn to love himself if he never learns to love another. Besides," she shrugged, "he's already bursting at the seams with lust. The love is so that the lust you'll share remains 'good', instead of trending towards dehumanizing."

Yukiko watched as Shinji's cheeks darkened, but not with the typical 'embarrassment'. What she saw in him was a truth that they had overlooked in their brief time with him. Shinji Ikari hated himself with a passion that lacked any substantive adjectives capable of explaining it. "Catch." She flipped the coin back to Shinji, "Zero."

With the dexterity that typified his movements, he caught the coin, placed it against the top of his hand, and then displayed the 'zero'. "This…other me," he asked quietly, "he had a good life?"

"Not really. His tormentor was male, his torments of a different variety though delivered with a similar hand." Qodeshah understood the hope that Shinji had that somewhere there was at least one Shinji Ikari that hadn't suffered. It hurt her to snuff that particular light out. "While his fortunes have improved, each inch of that territory was hard won and covered in blood."

"…Would he help me, if I offered to help him?"

"I'm not him. I won't dare to speak for him," she cautioned. "But if I had to guess, I would say he would be quite amenable to hearing your offer." Her finger flicked between him and Yukiko. "But, and this is important, you'd have to have something appealing to bargain. After all, if you can't help him…why would he risk his own loved ones for you?"

Yukiko stepped over to Shinji, and took his hands in hers. Once more, she found them rock steady. "You said you'd explain, if we made it out of here, how you weren't calm despite appearing calm." Her eyes focused on his, keeping him with her. "If I'm going to make this decision, I need to know as much as I can about what I'm getting into."

"You can't kill what's already dead," he answered, his tone flat. "If I die saving you, then I've won. If I've won, then there's no reason to be afraid. The reason I wasn't calm…was because I kept thinking about how wonderful it felt when you looked at me like I…mattered. That…caused my heart to race."

She had spent hours in his arms. He'd had his hands where he could have 'accidentally' touched her in any number of ways. His eyes could have lingered on portions of her body that most men would find appealing. Everything he'd done, on the contrary, spoke of a man that had not, as Qodeshah had accused, been consumed by lust. Without taking her eyes from him, she asked her next question, "Would I just be continuing what your aunt-"

"No." The violence in the word froze the air around them, the very aether surrounding them terrified into stillness. While his hands failed to even make an impression on her flesh, the rest of his muscles bunched tight, speaking of a need for violence. "…No."

"The difference is, if you asked him to join you he'd worship every inch of your mind and body." Qodeshah made an effort to help a young woman understand a truth that carried an unending list of complexities. "You aren't demanding of him, are you?"

Yukiko took a deep breath, then sighed out her frustration. "But I am, ma'am. If I accept this, and I want to make use of it, I will be demanding that he works with me on this."

Shinji's response was calmer, this time paired with a slight shake of his head, "No…because forced love isn't love. It's like that poem Toriumi-sensei had us read. If you want me to love you, you have to inspire me to want to love you. If you force me to love you, all you're doing is feeding my hatred of you." His shoulders bobbed. "If I'm going to bring lust out in you…I have to inspire that."

The point was well made, and fed into her one source of worry. "You said that the more women who accept this bargain, the better our chances will be?"

"Indeed." Qodeshah held up two fingers. "There are, as of right now, two Shinji Ikari that occupy positions of great power. The first truly draws strength from the love others have of him, though only when it is requited. If he loves another, and they do not love him, he is not empowered by that connection regardless of any other strong emotions involved. If another loves him, and he does not love them, the same rules apply. The second has a much different emotional bond with those few he is bound with, and out of respect for his desire for privacy I will forgo explaining his power. If you wish to help our Shinji, then you will have to feed him the emotion that is strongest within him."

"That…really doesn't track in my head." Yukiko frowned, shaking her head, baffled. "I mean, he's spent the last few days surrounded by my really cute classmates. He's had more than enough opportunities to show interest in any of us, and for all we knew he might have been the loneliest gay man in recorded history."

"Yeah, seems kind of odd that a man who had been abused into believing that there was only one woman on the entire planet that he would ever be allowed to see as a woman might, in fact, have some amount of difficulties conveying any sort of interest in other women." Her head tilted slightly to the side. "Truly, a mystery that may never be solved."

Yukiko scowled at the beautiful woman. "I may not have been on any dates during my time in high school, but I was still fully aware of when a boy was eyeing me. You know as well as I do that women are fully capable of feeling that sort of look."

"He's a special case, wouldn't you agree?" She wasn't impressed with the young woman's ire, nor with her hesitation. "He wasn't raised with any of the socialization you'd expect, nor was he given the privacy of his thoughts to feel anything for anyone that wasn't her. His control over those emotions makes him the perfect candidate to be empowered by them."

"What happens if I don't succeed?"

"The chances of the remaining seven times ten to the negative one hundred to the one hundred to the seventy eighth power percent of our dimension continuing to exist will take a significant impact. Right now, I don't have a valid mathematical proof to represent our potential chances, but I can safely assure you that 'not good' is something of an understatement. The more of you that agree to this bargain, and fulfill your end of the bargain, the higher our chances."

"…So he has to learn to love more than one of us?"

"I don't make the rules, and I don't control which emotions are available for occupation. He's a poor fit for nearly all of them by virtue of his upbringing, so if you want to file a complaint, I'd recommend finding her and making your opinion known."

Yukiko nodded twice. "Then we need to get back and discuss this with the others." Hugging Shinji, she stepped back and looked him in the eye. "I'm not going to take a 'cheap in' and jump ahead of any of the others you might have started already developing feelings for."

His mind was immediately full of warmth. Not only had she reminded him that he should never make someone else's decisions for them by smacking him down when he attempted to tell her 'no' to save her, she then lived up to the same expectations she'd set for him by not making other people's decisions for them. Straightening his back, he allowed her to give him strength. "I…would only regret us taking this bargain because I don't want you in danger. You are a good woman, Yukiko-san…I'm honored to know you."

Qodeshah, on the contrary, was more than a little irritated that a young woman given the chance to earn everything she might have ever wanted was punting out of loyalty to women that might not do the same for her. "It is not-"

'EXIT', Sachiel's statement was followed by an enormous wall of water crashing against the platform they'd been standing upon and sweeping both Yukiko and Shinji away and out of Tartarus completely.

Standing, untouched by the water, Qodeshah looked at her nephew with a raised eyebrow of irritation. "That was rude."

'PATIENCE', the giant Angel turned away, sinking back below the waves and disappearing to be about its own tasks.

"Patience isn't going to salvage what's left."