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.

55. Chapter 55

+++++ Tokyo-3. (Thursday, September 9th, +19, Waxing Crescent 2/4)

The streets were largely empty and disturbingly quiet. Ignoring the instinctual urge to hurry, she simply walked down the pre-established route to avoid detection by cameras. The shot had been impressive, if relatively easy for her. Most of her life had been spent 'long distance', and her chosen profession had only benefited from the desire she carried to be left alone. She'd been promised that everyone would leave her alone, in addition to the necessary funding for a solitary life away from civilization.

"Now, I've been party to a lot of really stupid shit."

The voice caused the assassin to turn towards the speaker with her personal defense weapon rising up to eliminate the threat. Her first five-round burst was deflected harmlessly to the ground by a second interloper, a seeming male with a flaming longsword that glared at her with contempt. Backing away and firing two more bursts, she began to think of different exit strategies.

"Shooting the last remaining male member of your species, and the guy that keeps people like my brother from sending the lot of you to the hereafter?" The schoolgirl she'd attempted to shoot began to grow larger, darker, as she walked towards her. Her voice gaining an echoing hunger as she did so, "That's an extra special flavor of stupidity."

Just as she was bunching her muscles to sprint for the stone fence lining the side of the road that would lead to the canal and associated waterway, she felt her legs become bound together by tendrils of thick kudzu.

"We will gain nothing by killing this thing prematurely, Morning Star." The assassin was pulled off her feet, slamming against the street as she was inverted and held at eye level by a stooped over old woman with glowing green eyes. "She will tell us what she knows before she is handed over for judgement to the mortals. Blood price is owed to his mother, by natural law."

The schoolgirl appeared from around the assassin's back, dragging one cruelly hooked nail along her cheek with a sinister grin. "I'm sure I can convince okaa-san that my depredations are more painful than her depredations. Should I start now," her voice lowered to a sibilant whisper, "or are you going to start talking?"

+++++ NERV. (Friday, September 10th, +20, Waxing Crescent 3/4)

Yui approached the group of waiting women wearing her cloak of frost. All eyes snapped to her as soon as the door opened, watching silently as she moved to a spot that would allow her to address everyone equally, "He yet clings to life." She wasn't certain what to do when Chie stood up quickly and hugged her. It was evident that the young woman was attempting to support her emotionally, but what the proper course of action would be now to show gratitude escaped her.

"Is there any word from The Wanderer?" Mitsuru's question was posed with the same calm detachment she outwardly displayed.

"They won't intervene," Hikaru announced, popping into existence nearby. Her eyes were jet black, her corneas glowing red, but otherwise she seemed to be the same as always. "Surviving is part of the trials, regardless of whether it's in combat or out. I did what I could to help, but considering this is his brain we're talking about, I've made certain that any supernatural help was minimal and clearly outlined."

Rise exploded, "You had a chance to help and you minimized it?!"

At the misunderstood accusation, Hikaru's skin flared a blood red before sizzling back to the typical pale hue. "I'm known for being a liar and a cheat, child. One miniscule mistake and we could irrevocably alter his personality completely. I don't get the benefit of 'oops'."

"Hikaru-chan's assistance was vital in preventing any further damage to his thalamus, corpus callosum, Wernicke's Area, and other segments of the remaining temporal lobe," Maya rattled off as she came through the same door that Yui had used. "Considering her reputation, she managed to do a great deal while demonstrating singular restraint." Now in control of the room, she looked to the woman whose honor she was defending. "Have they learned anything new?"

Hikaru held the glare at Rise for a moment longer, then turned to face a woman she had no doubt was far stronger than she looked. "We've gleaned everything we can from interrogation, validated it by scanning her mind, and at this point my brother is simply assuaging his guilt by torturing the bitch."

"What guilt?" Chie held onto Yui, but switched her position to a side-hug to rejoin the conversation.

"He accepted my demand that we go and speak with my brothers. We weren't in position to react in Shinji's defense because of that. It was my idea, not his, but he's being himself and insisting that he is responsible for the entire event."

"Neither of you pulled the trigger," Yuka stated plainly. "Do we have a name? Someone I can go set on fire?"

Hikaru looked at Maya. "Kaoru Nagisa."

+++++ The Silent World.

Sitting on a retaining wall in a small village in Tibet, The Silent One waited patiently for his visitor. He had felt their approach from the moment they entered the Oort Cloud, and had begun to move away from Japan to see if whatever it had been that was radiating such power was interested in him or something else. Once the object began to subtly shift direction, he decided that he could wait. Whatever it was, it would have to accept a meeting on Earth.

The night sky, free of any light pollution, offered an unrivaled view of the stars, galaxies, planets, and every other extraterrestrial body he could hope to gaze upon. The universe beyond him knew better than to come and bother him, yet somehow twice within a month he would be forced to enforce the 'Private Property' sign. He watched the person enter the atmosphere, flares of flame as friction ignited those trace gasses present. He watched them slow, clearly intending to avoid conflict. Sitting as he was, without Unit-01 wrapped around him, many might have mistaken him for peaceful…at least for a moment.

"I'm gonna take a wild swing and say that last time didn't quite go as you planned," he quipped, assessing the threat posed by the woman before him.

Asura stood on open air with the same regal formality he'd seen coming from Usagi time to time. The achingly beautiful woman, instead of rising to the bait, slowly inclined her head. "A stinging defeat, and an appropriate reminder about underestimating the human spirit."

"Aw, I'm gonna blush." Pushing himself up to his feet, he allowed peace to reign for the moment. "What do you want?"

"To strike a bargain."

"Ok," he shrugged, sliding his hands into his pockets, "you get the fuck off of my lawn, I don't use you as fertilizer. It's a fair bargain, to me."

"Is your bluster truly necessary?" She looked upon him with sympathy and distaste. "I have not brought my armies. I have not displayed my weapons. I am here to speak, Sovereign to Sovereign. Can we not simply speak to one another as equals?"

"Your army killed several thousand people, your majesty. People that died defending their home against an unannounced invasion. People that would still be here helping me make this planet whole once more, had you decided to try speaking first."

"This planet, like every other, is Her property. I was sent to enact her will, and shall do so again with far greater numbers if we cannot come to terms with one another."

Shinji sniffed loudly, tweaking his nose and mouth to the side. "Gonna be real hard to do that without a head."

She sighed in exasperation. "I offer you peace, and yet you clamor for war. He is truly nothing like you."

"Ooo, flimsy justifications for expansionism! I love it," he clapped mockingly, "please do continue."

"Surrender your claim upon him, upon what pittance remains of that dimension, and I will sue for peace on your behalf."

"Mmm…interesting, interesting." The Silent One tapped a finger against his lips in faux contemplation. "Counter-offer: you touch him, I'll decorate Mercury's orbit with your entrails."

"You presume much, God of the Dead. He would purchase you and your greater half billions of years worth of peace."

"See, I don't think you get it." He coughed out a laugh. "We don't use people as bargaining chips. We don't force people to join us. We don't insist that our values are universally 'good'. If you want peace, don't fucking attack us."

"…You cannot say that I did not attempt to bargain in good faith. For what it is worth, you have my sympathy."

The Silent One felt the arrival of his brother before he saw the giant entity with his hand wrapped around Asura's throat. If his brother killed her or not didn't matter, what prompted him to break their agreement did. "What happened?"

Disgust filled The Wanderer's voice, his enormous hand slowly winning the struggle over control of Asura's breathing, "They've collapsed your home dimension." Rage began to fill his eyes. "There are much easier ways to commit suicide, Your Majesty."

Fighting with all of her strength to keep breathing, she met his anger with calm, "Hypocritical rulers rarely find any modicum of success, Your Imperial Majesty."

"I cull dimensions that would birth murderous tyrants. Your 'patron' destroyed a dimension full of innocents that could do nothing to any other dimension."

His child, at least by his genetic sample, had found love. The Silent One had checked, from time to time, on the fallout from his absence. Hikari and Maya had fallen in love, had used a sample of his DNA to become pregnant…his child's children's grandchildren had become artists, leaders, defenders of justice and the citizenry at large. Alien civilizations had made peaceful contact, had helped humanity ascend to the stars…. "Hold her still."

Surprising both men, another powerhouse caught The Wanderer by surprise with a flying charge. With Asura released from death's grasp, and the man responsible for Creation now picking himself up off the ground several meters away, the leather-clad warrior who'd inserted herself into the fight looked directly at The Silent One and dared him to attack.

The Silent One had Unit-01 surrounding him, both of his Labrys in his hands, before The Wanderer had even struck the ground. Unable to see under the dark hood of the new combatant, he stalled for time, "Generally more polite to introduce yourself before you jump into conversations, lady." No longer hyper-fixated on the dimension he'd never have gone back to, he was in a much better position to defend himself. Without saying a word, the new warrior launched herself at him with a staff she crafted from nothing. The Silent One was accustomed to fighting with weapons hand-to-hand, however, and skillfully deflected her strikes before landing a solid blow against her shoulder at the jointing of her armor between her shoulder and neck. The axe bit deep, but didn't manage to cut through to flesh.

It was enough, though, to set her hood flapping free and expose her face.

"…Hotaru-chan?"

Her identity exposed, the Sailor for Saturn kicked The Silent One back before turning and pulling Asura away from the planet at full speed.

"Stop! Stop," The Silent One waved for his brother to stand down, "it's a trap."

Scowling up at the sky, The Wanderer looked back down to his brother with a hint of confusion.

"I know her a lot better than you do. That's a trap, and giving chase is what she wants." Spinning a portal open, he motioned for The Wanderer to follow. "We've got to make some decisions, man. I don't like it, you don't like it, but this situation has reached maximum fuckeditude and we can't carry on as we have been."

+++++ NERV. (Friday, September 10th, +20, Waxing Crescent 3/4)

The click-hiss-pop-hiss of the respirator connected to Shinji served as the only true noise to break up the silence in his recovery room. Ritsuko sat at his bedside, working on her tablet at the same time as she was monitoring his vitals for any activity. They'd managed to restore his heartbeat, his natural abilities with healing were closing up both the surgical and traumatic wounds, but even after ten hours he had no brain activity.

"So, yeah…she's being investigated even deeper now." She had read somewhere that speaking to the comatose had proven helpful in limited circumstances. That gave her free rein to talk about anything and everything that came to mind, in hopes of prodding his mind into switching back on. "The thing is, she…couldn't have done this. We've been analyzing the MAGI's records with a fine-tooth comb and have found nothing to snag on. We've found the exact moment that the new hardware was placed, and she was in a completely separate building working on something with Sensei. It just…." Ritsuko was caught completely off-guard as a portal between dimensions opened. "…Appeared."

"Sorry, RIts," a miniaturized Unit-01, moving with the fluid ease of a tall adult male, spoke through speakers installed in the armor itself. Moving through the portal behind it, the titan of a man that had come to halt the Angel of Death's advance was equally 'busy'. "Actually, no, you stay here," The Silent One motioned to the confused scientist, "I'll be right back."

After his brother had vanished once more, The Wanderer let his anger subside enough that it wasn't radiating off of him. "I am sorry for once more interfering in your world's affairs, Doctor. 'The best laid plans of Mice and Men', as it were."

"…Burns," she identified the source of the saying with clear hesitance.

"Indeed." Walking around to the opposing side of Shinji from her, he blew out the last of his anger. "My hope has always been that the best would rise to the moment. That I wasn't so damnably unique that there were no other Shinji Ikari out there who could overcome what their dimension had set before them." Placing his fingers against Shinji's temple, he felt for what he feared was now missing. "I don't hear his song…is this all my fault?"

A new portal popped open, admitting Ritsuko Ikari, Rina and Hina Ikari, and Misato Ikari. The latter moved to urge The Wanderer back, the former three made a short introduction of themselves and began to assess Shinji's condition. "Freedom comes with a price, big guy. You know that." Looking back over her shoulder, she eyed the Ritsuko from their current dimension. "You and I need to have a chat with my counterpart and your helper elf."

Ritsuko Akagi looked around at everyone, her face narrowing with irritation. "Now, after he's had the side of his head blown off, you decide to come in and see what you can do? After a ten hour surgery? After we've-"

"Oi," Ritsuko Ikari turned around and glared at herself, "stop being such a prat. You've served as a test proctor before, what's the first damn rule?" Holding that glare for a few seconds longer, she continued in a much more soothing tone, "We're going to do what we can, ok? You don't know enough about what's going on to have a valid theory. Misato is going to fix that, and she needs your help so she only has to do it once."

Yet another portal opened, dispensing Hera, Daphne, Kyoko Soryu, and Rebecca Chambers. Walking through behind them was The Silent One, who looked to his brother and shrugged. "Never knew a doctor that felt she had too many nurses." Tugging his helmet off, he nodded to Hera and Rebecca before they moved to help Ritsuko Ikari. Kyoko and Daphne moved with him over to his brother, remaining silent after wincing at what had become of this world's Shinji. "Let's go find mom."

+++++ NERV. (Friday, September 10th, +20, Waxing Crescent 3/4)

Misato Ikari and Misato Katsuragi stood nearly face to face. The native version shook her head slowly in disapproval, "You let yourself be compromised by him?"

"I let myself be loved by someone who has far too much of it to keep to any one person," her counterpart replied calmly.

"He was a teen."

"So were we, at one point." Glancing meaningfully at the cross necklace the native version wore, she tilted her head curiously. "If you're willing to accept that mom was wrong about things, you might find that there's a whole lot of love just waiting for you."

"Oh piss off. You know we're not slavishly devoted to dogma." Crossing her arms under her chest, she openly scowled. "That doesn't mean we throw out morality completely just because we'd rather constantly have fun."

"It does mean that taking the stick out of your ass will allow for more fun things to be placed there," Maya Ibuki stated, entering the room and waggling her fingers at the foreign Misato. "Sorry I'm late, I had to double check the intel we received about Nagisa." With a few long steps, she pulled Ritsuko into a hug, murmuring, "If he can be saved, they'll be the ones to do it. Let's sit down and listen to Misato, The Wanderer trusts her completely."

"I wouldn't go that far," Misato Ikari snorted. "He trusts me enough, though. He's never going to trust anyone completely, least of all himself." Turning away from her mirror self, she placed herself where she could be easily seen by those sitting at the table inside her counterpart's office. "All right, here's what's happening right now. The entity known as 'Kaoru Nagisa', which we are hoping is distinct from the version of 'Kaworu Nagisa' we had to deal with during our war against Creation, is extremely dangerous under the best of circumstances. They are one of the original Angels, the kind that need Evas to destroy. In our world, he was responsible for a series of terroristic attacks culminating in a nuclear strike against Tokyo-3 that my husband face-tanked."

Ritsuko gawped, "You had nukes?!"

"We probably did too," Misato Katsuragi muttered cautiously. "At least before most of the world vanished. The US, Russia…probably Spain."

"And now, after arranging an assassination attempt on your Shinji, we have to consider the possibility that the entire system of trials is worthless beyond protection." Misato Ikari shrugged. "Not that they were useful for much more than weeding out the bad Shinjis, all things considered."

"Bad Shinjis?"

"He's human, before the change. Humans have hopes, dreams, fears, and nightmares. Give a young man unlimited power, and even with the best of intentions there's going to be some dark shit." She summoned a small sphere of water, having it float next to her shoulder. "The Wanderer watches each dimension," she began to summon hundreds of much smaller spheres, having them dot the area around the first sphere, "and culls them if the Shinji Ikari native to that dimension decides that he'd rather become a tyrant." She made some spheres vanish. "As you can see, it's not that many out of the whole. The usual end of Shinji Ikari is either self-destruction, death in combat, or Third Impact." At that, the number of spheres were reduced to a few dozen. "Those that are left are monitored to see how the Shinji holds up under stress, and what capabilities they've developed."

Ritsuko Akagi frowned. "So…that small Eva?"

"The Silent One." Misato dismissed the spheres of water completely. "He fell through a Sea of Dirac, wound up in another dimension before the Shinji Ikari native to that dimension had been born yet, and fought alongside a bunch of magical girls. Because he brought with him a great evil to a world that hadn't ever known anything but saccharine goodness, the world around him began to decay rapidly. Things happened out of order, ninety-nine point nine nine nine nine et cetera percent of life was either killed or sent into the future, and now he's been invaded by interdimensional armies of an entity that seems to embody the concept of Order. That entity was drawn here by your Shinji, and now we're here to figure out what we can do without actively unbalancing everything. That includes finding out if, why, and how a multiversal being has come back from where my husband sent them."

+++++ NERV. (Friday, September 10th, +20, Waxing Crescent 3/4)

The Wanderer had a hint of a smile about his lips as he watched Yui Ikari hug his near fully armored brother. When The Silent One let his guard down enough to send the armor back to wherever it hid when not in use, the smile blossomed completely. Watching a version of himself hugging his mother, remembering exactly how warm it felt to be hugged by her, he could take the time to appreciate the good pushing itself to the surface from a sea of bad.

"Yet another version of me?" Kyoko Zeppelin looked to Kyoko Soryu, then to The Wanderer.

"Some things are more constant than others, but even in your constancy you manage to find a wide variety of ways to establish how unique you are," the giant replied with a nod of recognition.

"Two doctors," Kyoko Soryu stated with curiosity, "and me the only General. I'm still the odd duck out, it seems. Do you have a whiteboard hidden in this room somewhere? We're going to need space to draw diagrams."

After the Kyokos left to set up materials for the meeting, Daphne moved closer to The Wanderer and set a tiny hand on his side. "This is not your doing, Allfather."

"All things have come about by my design, or lack of planning, my dear," The Wanderer sighed out. "I made the choice to allow free will. Hoped for the best in people to win out over the baser evils." His smile shifted to more of a grimace as he looked down into her flawless face. "Allowed myself to be disappointed, despite knowing that I was setting myself up for it. This, the massive decrease in males, and now an enemy army under the direction of a being that has subsumed the concept of Order itself." Faced with her unyielding trust, he couldn't hold onto his sour mood for too long. "But, my fault or not…it is now my responsibility to do what I can to offer the freedom of choice to as many as I can."

"And that, good sir, is why we follow you," she added with an impish grin. "My husband and you are, and ever will be, our greatest hope of living a life of our own choosing."

"Her name is Daphne," The Silent One brought Yui over to introduce her to the Dryad.

"Daphne Ikariaina," she introduced herself with a polished smile and extended hand.

"Daphne, wife of Ikari," Yui translated the change, calmly accepting the Western gesture. "I wish I had the time to get to know you better."

The Wanderer coughed slightly, bringing everyone's attention to him. "That…is part of why we're here."

+++++ Nowhere.

There was confusion.

Confusion brought along with it anxiety and curiosity.

Anxiety brought fear and distrust, curiosity brought determination and awareness.

He felt none of them, though. The fog of sleep clung to Shinji, his spiritual body adjusting to not having the physical mirror its thoughts. Sitting up, he attempted to remember what he had been doing and immediately regretted the decision with his head feeling as if it would fracture into a million pieces. "Ok…don't want to do that again." While the pain subsided, he used the time to instead focus on what he knew. He knew that he wasn't on what remained of Earth. He knew he hadn't arrived here of his own will. He knew he wasn't hungry, thirsty, or tired.

The world around him was a roiling mixture of black, dark blue, and smoky gray. Without anything to use as a landmark, he had no way to tell how far he could see, nor any way to journey to perhaps find something. Getting to his feet didn't hurt, wiggling his fingers and flexing his hands produced no real sensation to speak of. Taking a few steps forward, he felt nothing beneath his feet and saw no change in his surroundings.

"Ok, that means that either I'm not actually moving or that everywhere is like this." Testing out the theory by sitting down on empty air, he found that his body position remained relative to whatever it was he was thinking of. "So…I'm not awake. I'm not on Earth. What's the last thing I remember without pain?" He frowned, only coming up with getting on the train. "That can't be right. I was scared, nervous…I'm not either of those. I've grown." He looked at his hands again, nodding to himself in agreement. "I'm bigger now." A shimmer in the distance drew his eyes.

Solidifying out of the sea of nothingness, an olive-skinned woman walked slowly towards him while analyzing the world around them. "I believe that at some point before I inevitably die again, I would like to see into the mind of a Shinji Ikari that does not have an innately bleak view of the world."

Shinji rose to his feet, manners automatically prohibiting him from remaining seated. "Are we in my mind, ma'am?"

Her smile was tolerant. "We are not. We are within a shared projection of your superego, quite detached from you and anything tied to you." Extending her hand, palm down and fingers slightly curled, she answered a question she had begun to realize was forming, "We have met before. I am Hera, wife of The Silent One."

Shinji placed his fingers perpendicular to her own, bowing his head over her knuckles as if beseeching benediction. "I…don't remember, Hera-san. Which should be worrying, considering how striking you are."

"Should be?" She allowed him to free his hand and take a step back. Crowding him would do no good.

"I'm not worried," he replied matter-of-factly. "I should be enamored of you…but I am not. I should be nervous about speaking with you, or anxious about not remembering anything after the train crash, or frightened about not being somewhere sane, but here I am, unafraid."

Layering her arms comfortably over one another, she nodded in agreement. "That is rather odd, is it not?"

"Did you bring me here?"

"No. I discovered that part of you had awakened, and came to see if you required soothing."

"Your husband, The Silent One, did he send you?"

"After a fashion. He asked that I assist Creation's brides, as none of them have as deft a touch for connecting with those such as you without becoming entangled."

"Entangled?"

"Yes," Hera started slowly, "tied to you by our souls. It would be very difficult, and require far more effort than you would willingly put into it, for you to tie me to you. You are kind, and tying others to you without permission is rather vile."

"I'm…kind…." He tried to feel something about that fact. Tried to sense what it might mean that a strange woman named after a Greek goddess so willingly said it of him. "It doesn't really seem like something I would do, anyway. I don't think kindness factors into it."

"Oh?"

He nodded slowly, thinking through his argument. "I'm not healthy. My mind is a very bad place, with a great deal of self-loathing and…hunger."

Her eyebrow quirked. "Are you hungry?"

"Mmm?" His eyes refocused on her. "Oh, no. You're married, and married to someone with a title instead of a name. Thinking of you that way is a good way for me to find myself permanently dead. You are a vision of loveliness, but simply from a pragmatic perspective it wouldn't be worth the price to make the attempt."

"Ah, hungry," she chuckled. "Most understandable, that. You are a young, healthy, man with the desires of a young, healthy, man."

He disagreed firmly. "After what Meroko-sama did over the course of my life, those hungers are best left alone. I doubt that was normal, and I really don't want to tie someone to me for the rest of my life only to keep them at arm's distance because I hate both myself and what's happened."

"I do not believe the young women tied to you view you as a burden, though."

"I…no," his mouth dropped into a deep frown, "no. That is unacceptable."

Before she could say anything, Hera felt the bonds between him and everyone tied to him be severed by sheer force of will. "Brother of my husband, what have you done?!"

+++++ NERV. (Friday, September 10th, +20, Waxing Crescent 3/4)

An alarm on Maya's watch began screaming, prompting her to stand up violently from where she'd been helping Ritsuko and Misato understand what Misato Ikari had been trying to explain. "Something's happening to the girls!" Hoping that at least Misato would follow, she wasn't disappointed to hear three sets of feet begin pounding along behind her as she dashed to where she'd left the young women tied to this universe's Shinji Ikari. She might not be as strong in this universe, but she was no less determined to face whatever monster would think to attack her family.

+++++ NERV. (Friday, September 10th, +20, Waxing Crescent 3/4)

The Silent One and The Wanderer looked at each other, a swift and silent discussion of who would be the best to go and find out what had just happened. Between heartbeats, The Silent One nodded and jumped through a portal to do what he could while The Wanderer stayed to hurry negotiations along. The giant albino closed his eyes and scrubbed the heel of his right hand against his temple. "Our timeline keeps shortening. We need to figure out if this is the best plan in the next few minutes, or I'm going to have to make a decision for everyone."

+++++ NERV. (Friday, September 10th, +20, Waxing Crescent 3/4)

Ritsuko Ikari was impressed by Rebecca Chambers' reaction speed, the waifish doctor both catching and easing to the ground a pair of women that appeared out of nowhere. She recognized one as a member of Amethyst's species, but not the blonde-haired young woman. Both were unconscious, and Rebecca had begun basic examinations before needing to be ordered to do so.

"Heartbeat is steady, pulse is slow, breathing seems normal," she reported for the first one. "She," she'd moved on to who she'd later learn was 'Shizuko', "doesn't have a pulse, isn't breathing…but she's warm to the touch and her eyes are twitching. Is she a non-human?"

"She's a fallen angel," Hikaru growled, appearing in the room at the far end by phasing through the wall. "It's normal for her to not have life signs. What the fuck just happened here?"

+++++ NERV. (Friday, September 10th, +20, Waxing Crescent 3/4)

The Silent One arrived before Maya, an axe held lazily in one hand in case the problem required kinetic intervention. When he spied Rise attempting to reposition everyone besides Sadayo into less painful positions on the ground, he dismissed the axe and walked over to help the recently healed teacher back onto the couch. "They all breathing?"

Rise blinked at him. "Shinji-kun?"

"Not yours, no." A quick examination of Sadayo told him that she was just in a great deal of pain from hitting the floor unexpectedly. "I'm generally called The Silent One, which is a bit of a mouthful but here we are." Walking over to the door, he had it open just as Maya reached it. "I'm assuming talking to you is like talking to her, for the most part?"

"Yes." Maya hurried over and began a more professional inspection of the fallen women. "Do we know what happened? Is there a reason Rise-chan isn't down?"

"We're not sure." He looked over to Rise. "Was there an attack? Anything visible?"

Rise was trying to process everything, including the two Misatos scanning the room for danger. "N-no. We were all trying to cheer up Chie-chan, she's been taking everything the hardest. Suddenly, everyone fell down. Like…poof, on the floor."

Misato Ikari spoke up, "So it's just the ones tied to him?"

"Seems like," The Silent One agreed with a frown. "Ok, executive decision: everyone out of the pool." Gesturing with an open palm, he created a large portal to the Silent World. "Sis, I want you to take command. Tell Mars that I need her to focus on tactical defense, your job is keeping people from running into each other. Doctor Akagi, Captain Katsuragi, I outrank your Commander. I'm absorbing you into my team for the time being, help move the wounded to my hospital." He walked over to where Sadayo was still grimacing in pain, crouching down and apologizing, "Sorry about this, ma'am. You're not mobile, and I need you somewhere safe right now."

Hissing out between her teeth as he picked her up in a bridal carry, the teacher nodded in understanding.

Maya hung back. "What do you want me doing?"

"Get to my brother and find out what the fuck just happened here. I'll be there in a minute once everyone's safe," he called over his shoulder.

"Which brother?"

"The conscious one!"

+++++ Nowhere.

"I undid an error in judgement," Shinji replied with calm detachment. His body started to feel as if it belonged to him again, and he flexed his hands to work that feeling through his arms. "I don't remember why I did it in the first place, but I know that it was wrong of me to do so. They are now free to pursue someone else, and will no longer be beholden to the insanity that is my life."

"But it is the very fact that you do not remember why you did it at all that makes it so horrible to simply undo it!" Hera walked over and reached out to touch his arm, only to have him easily dodge her attempt as if he'd not seen her do anything of the sort. Watching him walk in a slow circle as if finding his body for the first time in his life, she scowled with frustration. "What of their choices? Are you so cavalier as to take their input as worthless?"

"Misinformed, not worthless." He began to shake his arms, limbering up his shoulders. "We don't trust people with machinery if they haven't been through the proper classes. We don't let people undergo medical treatments they don't understand if they're still conscious and aware. I will not allow people to be tied to me that clearly don't understand me."

"They love you!"

"Love is irrational," he countered without heat. "I can feel how powerful I am, Hera-san…I can't afford to be irrational if I am to be responsible for this strength."

+++++ NERV. (Friday, September 10th, +20, Waxing Crescent 3/4)

The Silent One stepped into a fairly strange scene. Rebecca was tending to two women on the floor, Rina and Hina were prepping Shinji for exfil, Ritsuko was talking quietly to Hikaru, and Hera was nowhere to be seen. "Becca, where's Hera?"

"Talking to Ikari-san in his mind," the former cop replied without looking. "Can we move these two as well, or are we only taking some of the people?"

"If it lives, it moves. Dinner later?"

"Sounds great. Salads?"

"You need to gain weight," he helped her by picking up one of the wounded and making a portal to his now-home dimension, "Doctor's orders, remember?"

She threw him a pout. "I like how you're able to pick me up, though."

He rolled his eyes, accepting her banter and going along with it. "I can pick up a star and throw it to another galaxy, Becca. I'm pretty sure I could manage another ten kilos on my girlfriend's frame." Handing off the known alien to one of his doctors, he turned back and held his ground.

"…Fine, steak and salad?"

"Sold." Giving her a kiss on the top of the head, he picked up the unknown alien and moved her as well. "Ok, Rits, talk to me."

"He's severed all connections," the blonde scientist stated with a great deal of exasperation. "Our guest believes he no longer is capable of processing emotions, and that he's making decisions based solely on pure logic."

Hikaru snarled, "Pure dream logic, no less. He's asleep, so half his fucking brain isn't even really turned on!"

"It wouldn't matter," Ritsuko added with a shrug. "I've known two Shinjis for a very long time, and if I know anything about them it's that when all they have is logic to use they're devoutly unafraid to stomp on their own dick to prevent even minor harm to another. I like to call it 'masochistic utilitarianism'."

The Silent One coughed into his closed fist, "Hypocrite." Glaring at the doctor, he addressed Hikaru, "We're pulling everyone out of this shithole. My world can't be worse, and this trial just got hijacked by several foreign interest groups. You want to head out now with him or do you have shit to do here?"

"I'm not leaving until that asshole," she pointed towards the ceiling, indicating the Kagutsuchi that had formed around The Great Will, "is dead. This has been the best opportunity to stop him from continuing to corrupt life since my father left, I can't pass it up."

"Ok." He saw Rebecca lingering and tilted his head.

She gestured to her hip pack. "My duty is here, where there may be more trauma patients. It's not like you're going to just suddenly forget about me, ya know?"

"Fair enough." Once Rina and Hina had Shinji through the portal, he closed it and gestured to a new portal to The Wanderer.

"-have a stall for it," The Wanderer was saying as everyone came through the portal. "We'll park it next to mine, and I'll take a look at it to figure out what we can do." He eyed The Silent One, who nodded. "Ok, good. Daphne, can you call out to The Grovemother?"

"Of course." The Dryad looked over to Rebecca, giving her a small grin and an even smaller thumbs up. "She's coming."

"No, I'm not." The Grovemother called from the corner of the room, where a potted plant was thriving. "I'm actually rather out of sorts at the moment." She was inspecting the leaves, murmuring approvingly. "Shadowmother, you have done well to nurture this child of multiple strains." Turning to face Yui, she asked pointedly, "Why could you not give such attention to Fatesbane?"

When The Silent One went to protest, The Wanderer cut him off with a motion of his hand. "Grovemother…that was a very distinct phrasing." Moving over and offering her his arm to cross the distance between the corner and everyone else, he allowed her to float up to his elbow before walking with her. "Are we missing something?"

She smiled ruefully. "It makes sense that you would pick apart the sentence before the others. Yes, I should say everyone here is missing something rather serious."

"Can we not play 'Twenty Questions'," Hikaru snapped. "This day has continued to suck, let's just get all the suck out at once, yeah?"

The Grovemother glowered at the supposed teen. "When you are responsible for flora, not simply as individual plants but as a general understanding of the concept, you learn to discern when certain shoots aren't quite where they should be. Your sciences have shown the capacity to come close to seeing what I do with a mere glance, but you still lack key understandings when reading the book of life." She shook her head sadly, then looked at Yui. "You chose to have your eggs fertilized outside of your body, because you were having difficulties conceiving naturally, did you not?"

Everyone in the room stopped, then Kyoko Zeppelin, the woman who'd been by Yui's side since long before she'd become married to Gendo, drew in a long breath between clenched teeth. "Meroko."

Yui would have collapsed to the floor, overwhelmed by her entire perspective being ripped away from her, had The Silent One not caught her. Hefting her up and hurrying over to her couch, he was quickly followed by Rebecca Chambers. Hikaru's brow creased, trying to figure out how she would have missed something so vital to the entirety of their situation. Kyoko Soryu remained focused on the board, piecing together the last bit of the evacuation plans. The Wanderer looked to Daphne, who looked at him with undisguised contempt for what had been done to the woman that had begun to make inroads towards becoming 'family'.

"She used her egg, Gendo's sperm, and Yui's womb. That explains why she doesn't have that marker…." The Wanderer looked down to his feet, replaying what he had seen of the world they were standing upon. "…I haven't actively looked for the moment of conception. I know I should, but I'm really not that interested in watching simulacra of my parents having sex. When that starts, I give them privacy. The same way I do for everyone else."

From her place by the whiteboard, Kyoko Soryu called back, "I'm hearing a 'but' there, sir."

"But I can't see a six-hour period around the fertility clinic in the hospital they used." He shook his head, trying to explain thirty things at once. "That shouldn't be me, then." He caught his brother's eye, both men nodding at once. "I'm going to admit to some ignorance about the specifics surrounding human reproduction, but how could he look just like us if he's actually Meroko Ikari's child?"

"Because you have to happen in every universe, otherwise that universe simply never happens in the first place," Hikaru explained offhandedly. "That's what happens when you take over Creation's office, champ. You are literally the reason for Creation. Why do you think I'm so happy that it's you and not the previous asshat?"

"Ok, accepting that as the reason, why is this the only universe where something like that happened? Why is it always Gendo and Yui?"

Hikaru looked to Kyoko Zeppelin, "When was the bitch born?"

"She is two years younger than Yui," Kyoko replied from memory.

The Silent One looked to his brother, "I don't remember ever hearing about an aunt."

"Neither do I," The Wanderer replied. "I was raised by an uncle. The world I ended up on the second time around I was raised by an old family friend. I'm thinking through the worlds I've seen, there are some aunts there…none of whom raised us."

"Wrong question," Hikaru cut in. "When was she born?"

He blinked, then narrowed his eyes in thought. "I…I don't see her birth." His pupils saccaded rapidly, scanning back and forth across a film reel that only he could see clearly. "She literally just shows up one morning in a crib next to mom."

In one corner of the room, Hera coalesced into being through a cloud of colorful feathers, hurrying over to her beloved. Next to The Wanderer, a two-meter tall, one-meter wide 'The Fool' tarot card slid into the space between worlds before rotating once along its central axis and dissolving to leave behind the Shinji Ikari native to this world. "We need to focus on the threat She poses. The circumstances of my birth are a distraction, and ultimately meaningless. I'm here, now, and I need you to finish evacuating."

"And if I say 'no'?" The Wanderer gauged the 'odd man out', sensing a far greater store of power than should have been within the man.

"Then you will be responsible for the deaths of whoever you leave behind." Holding out one hand, he offered the dagger that had been gifted to him by Motsuki. "Please return this to her, if I am forced to erase this dimension to eliminate the impostor it would be destroyed with me, and it does not belong to me."

Patting Rebecca on the back to encourage her to continue tending to his mother, The Silent One stood up and moved over to stand beside his brother. "Ok man, you have got to turn your emotions back on. I get the whole 'no emotions means no pain' thing. Really, I do. But we can't save good by ignoring half of what makes good."

"Perhaps you cannot," he replied. Suddenly several copies of 'The World' sent everyone but the three Shinjis away from the room. "I have no such limitations. I am going to enter Tartarus now. There are three hundred and seventeen thousand two hundred and thirty-eight lives left to save on this planet." The Wanderer took the dagger from him. "Work fast." With that, he disappeared from the room via another copy of 'The Fool'.

"…Ok, I'm just going to say it: our brother's an asshole."

The Wanderer sent the dagger to his desk in his home dimension, he'd handle that situation later. "To be frank, all three of us are from time to time. We're not going to be able to stop him, not without hurting people. Let's get everyone to safety, then we'll confront him again."

+++++ Tartarus.

The walls around him were blank. The floors bending and twisting down hallways were blank. The ceiling was either non-existent or so far above that it was unable to be seen. Shinji's first breath inside what Tartarus had chosen to represent itself to him as smelled sterile. After a long, slow, exhale he gave what he felt to be a warning that was only logical, "Step out to where I can see you, or face destruction."

Peering around the corner of a nearby intersection of hallways, the metal creature made of thorns and barbs assessed whether or not it would be summarily eradicated. After several seconds of hesitation, it crept out from behind cover and took two tentative steps towards Shinji. Its three remaining full arms curled around its upper torso, cradling its ruined limb and demonstrating that it sought no hostilities.

Shinji felt the sight was inappropriate, and so he acted to address it. Walking with slow purpose to close the distance, he gently took the shattered limb in his hands and apologized, "I am sorry for having done this. You acted out of fear and ignorance, and I reacted without thought." The cuts and abrasions he earned handling the creature's skin healed as quickly as they appeared, and he ignored the pain to focus on what he was about. Slowly coaxing the 'flesh' to regrow, he restored the fourth arm to where it had been before their last fight. "I should have recognized you. I shouldn't have ignored half of my existence."

The creature opened its mouth, avoiding the appearance of a threat yet still displaying an empty void where internal structures should have been. Its low, guttural, utterance held no coherent words in any known language but imparted both gratitude and an uncertain hope.

"Yes," he replied. Moving one of his hands up to the creature's head, he improved its ability to communicate. "I know our purpose now. Will you forgive my abuse? Will you help me do what must be done, even though we might die in the doing of it?"

Yes. The response, pure intent from the creature's mind, carried eagerness to be about their duty. We fight?

"Because we have been forced to. Never because we simply feel like it."

…Yes. Only fight…stop hurt.

"Exactly." Gesturing down his direction of travel, Shinji nodded in respect to his other half. "Come, my friend…we march towards our destiny."

+++++ The Runic Throne.

While under normal circumstances Hikari Ikari would have been thrilled to entertain a version of her beloved husband's mother, at the moment she found herself becoming increasingly angry at what was being forced upon her. "Dear," she growled in a whisper, "our capacity is becoming somewhat constrained. I've been hosting the delegations, as you asked me to, but the recovery wing of our home is full up. Your brother's wives have begun flooding us with wounded, and I've not been told why."

The Wanderer, as in love now as he'd ever been with his first wife, motioned for calm. "Crisis point. The Shinji we've been following recently has manifested his power fully, and is hunting down his 'evil'. I'm just using this as a staging platform for ninety-nine percent of the people we're evacuating. The Chrysanthemum Throne has offered the lands around their palace for the resettlement of the non-humans, and I'm already in talks with the Japanese government to find space for everyone else. One, two days at most."

"I don't care about the crowding, I care about being kept ignorant you blithering git!"

Keeping his own temper from feeding off of hers, he muttered, "Spending more time around Noelle, I guess." Breathing in, he focused on facts, "He took a twelve point seven by ninety-nine NATO," he held his thumb and forefinger around one hundred and forty-four millimeters apart, "to the side of the head. The round penetrated enough that it hit his thalamus, which really screwed with his emotions. Right now, he's hunting down what they've been calling 'The Great Will' and has decided that if he can't defeat it he'll just erase what's left of that dimension. I'm evacuating everyone to prevent a catastrophe that wouldn't have happened if I hadn't fucked up in setting up the rules that govern everything. I'm tired, I'm sore, and I've just learned a lot of stuff that's hurting me emotionally. I'm not keeping you ignorant intentionally, I'm being pulled in too many directions and so I'm prioritizing life over everything else."

Despite compassion overcoming her anger for the moment, she pressed her point, "And yet you won't let me help?"

"You are helping me," he sighed out. "Who the hell else am I going to trust to keep our children safe? We just got back the twins, I watched them travel the Amara Network myself to make sure they got here safely. I can't call you like I do Suzuka, which means that you're the most logical choice to stay here and prevent tragedies. I'm relying on your strength here, where it matters the most."

"Usagi can keep them safe, she loves spending time with them."

"Usagi can also be called to me with a thought. Your connection to me doesn't work that way."

"…Fine." Turning around, she stormed off.

His first inclination was to chase after her, but he knew his responsibilities for the time being lay elsewhere. Grabbing one of his Ravens as they went rushing past, he tasked her with finding several of his household staff. Catching another of his wives' songs, he spoke before turning to see her approach, "It is a complete shitshow. I'm going to have to rethink the entire system, account for biases that I didn't know existed, and try to gather data without drawing attention to where my focus is."

Asuka Langley Soryu Ikari, a much different woman than the one she'd been born as, took her treasured husband's arm and pulled him out of the general flow of traffic. "We didn't sign up for easy, meine Mausbärchen. I'll talk to Hikari, try to get her to see reason."

The lack of 'I told you so' from the woman most critical of his lifestyle gave him hope that the day could be salvaged. "If anyone can, it's you meine Hase. I'll need your help redesigning everything once I put out this fire."

"And you'll have it, you know that." With her beauty all the richer for the more than decade she'd spent aging before joining her soul to his forever, she gave him a hint of a teasing grin that stole his breath away. "You keep me on retainer for just such exigencies, and my price remains the same despite the gravity of the situation."

"I'll pay double." Pulling her into a hug and lifting her feet off the ground as he stood to his full height, he inhaled the scent of her hair and thrilled as her song played perfect counterpoint to his own. "Thank you, Two. Thank you for always being my biggest champion."

She could think of nowhere else in all of creation that she'd rather be at that moment. "To the very end, come what may."

"Incoming!" The shouted warning shattered the moment, sending both Shinji and Asuka racing over towards the portal between The Silent World and their home. A series of explosions were muted, striking against hastily erected shields to protect both sides of the connection and those people transiting. Visibility on the other side of the portal was limited by the debris thrown up, the screams and shouts indicating an ongoing attack.

"Grab Unit-04 and have Tactical get you close to here. If it's hostile, it's dead!" The Wanderer threw Asuka towards the hangers, trusting in her reflexes and natural grace to serve her in landing safely. Once he reached the portal, he slid down to one knee and asked one of those who'd fled through the portal, "Did they come back?"

The young woman shook her head, still trying to gain her bearings. "Orbit…they were bombarding us from orbit."

+++++ The Silent World.

"Everyone means everyone!" The Silent One was in rare form as he prevented the bombardment from doing any more damage with a nonstop stream of portals that sent the projectiles back out into space near the sun. "If it has a god damn pulse, I want it somewhere that isn't under direct enemy assault! Leave the dead, we'll deal with them later, move it!"

Watching for a second as the runner left with her superior's orders, Tsuruko Ikari added another question to the day's ledger, "Are we abandoning the planet?"

"We are getting civilians out of danger," he ground out through clenched teeth. "If they want this rock, they're going to bleed for it."

"Tsuruko-san, please keep my brother defended." The Wanderer strode over to them with thunderclouds on his face. "I'm going to go up to that vessel and tear it apart, once the bombardment stops I'd appreciate some company."

"It'll be a family outing," The Silent One barked out a dark laugh. "I'll make sure someone brings a picnic lunch."

"You have backup coming, Tactical is organizing units so we're not tossing a gagglefuck into this mess. You good?"

"I'm fucking peachy. Would you kindly stop telling me things I already know and go bring that bitch down?" After a snarled acknowledgement, The Wanderer disappeared leaving The Silent One with his beloved. "Tsuruko?"

Still unbothered by the war around them, the beautiful swordswoman replied, "Yes, dear?"

"If this ends badly-"

"It will not."

"-I want you to know that you and your sister helped me become a better man."

+++++ The Silent World, Stationary Orbit.

The Wanderer was able to count seventeen vessels of relatively similar design. Holding time still so that he could approach without being fired upon, he felt the strain of the act digging into the base of his neck as it tended to when he was forced to hold the multiverse still. Continuing his assessment of the problem, he noted that only one of the seventeen ships were currently firing. That…doesn't seem right. While not the military genius that Misato was on her worst day, he'd picked up enough by being around her to make most anyone else seem ignorant of strategy and tactics. Withholding sixteen-seventeenths of your fire seemed particularly arrogant, foolish, or worrying.

Tackling the entire battlegroup wasn't an option, with the formation keeping proper distance from one another to avoid just that type of action. His first impulse was to call for several of his own capital ships to assail their fairly open flanks, but once more the fact that the mass of the fleet before him hadn't yet engaged worried him too much to risk that many lives. He needed intel, but the middle of a firefight was likely the worst place to attempt to do that.

Touching down on the surface of the ship that was firing down onto the planet below, he relaxed his hold over time and summoned the most enormous portal he'd ever attempted to use. Placing it where he had, along the dorsoventral axis, his intent was to use the portal's connection to Jupiter to tear both halves of the ship inwards towards one another. When, instead, the portal lost cohesion and collapsed The Wanderer discovered the purpose of the other sixteen vessels. Gravity well generators are keeping the portals from forming properly…fine. After a quick search for what was most likely the command deck, he summoned a lightning strike that would have cored the moon. A combination of explosions and implosions rocked the enormous battleship. Any atmosphere inside became ignited by the electromagnetic attack, rending it apart into three massive chunks.

The Wanderer's feeling of satisfaction was swiftly wiped away as he realized he'd fallen into a trap. Small portals, such as the ones used below to redirect the projectiles or the one assisting refugees in fleeing the combat zone, would function appropriately. A portal large enough to send the ruins of the battleship anywhere but directly down atop that combat zone would fizzle thanks to the other sixteen ships. The other sixteen ships which had now opened fire on him with a blinding array of directed energy weapons.

+++++ The Silent World, Surface.

Lily was having a grand time. It'd been far too long since she'd had the opportunity to really let loose and just enjoy the sensation of tearing someone's coccyx free of their body via their intestines. Surrounded as they were by fighters more ferocious than even the [Song], she now had all the opportunity she could ever want to really dig deep in her efforts to perfect artistic violence. "How are you doing, Slut?"

"Oh, I'm fine, dear." Eve, Lilith of Eden's opposite in every conceivable manner, was instead meticulously protecting the stream of children being evacuated from the bunker to safety. Segments of earth grew and settled in a ceaseless living wall to keep projectiles and enemies from coming closer. "They are moving their darling little legs as fast as they can. Another…six minutes?"

A fusillade of flaming arrows raked the press of masses against the pair of ancients, both variations of the Scarlet Maiden of Hikawa Shrine working in tandem to provide covering fire for yet another flank of the sprawling battle. Speaking as one, they pushed for information, "How many more?"

"Another six hundred, give or take," Lily shouted over the cacophony. "Thanks for the assist, we've got it for now."

"Uh, everyone, we've got a bit of an issue inbound," Ami Ikari pointed up above them. "Each of those weighs about as much as the Australian continental plate!" She watched as Hera, Usagi Ikari, and Hikaru roared into the sky. Each powerhouse was moving towards one of the three segments of the vessel The Wanderer had broken, which only solved part of the problem for the moment. "Odin is taking effective fire; he's going to need help in orbit!"

+++++ Tartarus.

With his persona now firmly in place, Shinji moved through the corridors of Tartarus without opposition. Whether by four bladed, serrated, thorned and barbed elbows and fists, or by a single well-placed thrown card, or by being torn to pieces by the strength of ages, or by a dagger gifted to him by a stranger, no foe they faced could withstand their combined might.

"It is a fitting name, I feel." With far too much to think about, Shinji had fallen back upon talking 'to himself' by talking to someone else. "Not that I feel you are oppositional. 'Animus' is simply an appropriate way to describe everything you project on my behalf."

We fight. Animus' four limbs moved with deadly efficiency. A great cat striking fast and hard to put down each enemy in a single attack. Fight good.

"Indeed. I begin to understand why I wasn't given a weapon similar to my brothers." Shinji drove his dagger through the eye of an enormous bird that had attempted to attack them from behind. "A dagger is useful, but very limited. You, my friend, are actually my weapon."

Fight better with ladies.

The unexpected thought surprised him, causing him to overcorrect and obliterate the remaining sludge-based enemy with an attack far more deadly than what he should have used. Stopping their forward progress, he frowned. "Explain that, if you would."

Fight one hand? Good. Animus shook the recently repaired arm to demonstrate his intent. Fight four hands? Better.

"That would mean placing them in danger. They do not have our protections."

Fight is risk. Life is risk.

"You should listen to your subconscious." A new, softspoken, voice added from the other end of the hall. Azrael took a few more steps before stopping in the center of the walkway, clearly blocking further progress. "There can be no life without risk, no perfect solution to protect everyone and anyone. I exist to help those poor souls who can no longer carry the fight onwards, to guide them to their rest until the time that their fate is settled."

Shinji looked at him, his frown shifting to something closer to confusion. "Your superior angel agreed to stand down. Your fight with me does not need to happen."

"Need to?" The angel nodded slowly. "Perhaps not. Must? Most definitely."

"I have no quarrel with you."

"And I cannot allow you to infect this realm with your malformed Reason. Logic cannot exist without emotion. As emotion lacks direction without logic, so too does logic lose righteousness without emotion to temper it." Summoning his scythe, the badge of his office, Azrael stood impassively before him. "Turn back, o man. Forswear thy foolish ways."

Animus gave out a low, quiet, growl. Fight bad. Not need fight.

Once more, Shinji disagreed. "He is between us and our destiny, my friend. We do not have time to stand around and debate all day. The longer we fail to act, the worse our situation becomes. This fraud can't be allowed to take control of the direction of humanity."

…Fight better with ladies.

+++++ Author's Notes:

My apologies for the delay in getting this out. I had an emergency surgery on Saturday that was the result of a week in the hospital. I'm going back under the knife tomorrow, with another three surgeries likely in the reasonably near future depending on how well I recover.

The whole point of this story is now coming to a head, as you can see in this chapter. Larger enemies are making themselves known, ones capable of wielding force against the heavy hitters that are the protagonists. This Shinji is finally making his choices, and will be dealing with the consequences of those choices while in the depths of Tartarus. The pieces are moving into place for all sides, what comes of it isn't likely to leave the status quo intact.