"I was the Lord, if only for a brief moment."
She looked up at the only other living thing on Earth. The only sounds were the waves crashing and leaving the smell of blood on the shores. It was cold, as if someone wanted it. The boy standing less than a yard away looked much older then the age he was, as if he carried the guilt of billions of souls. She could only wait for him to continue on.
"Mankind murdered God and used his limbs to slaughter his children. Huge abominations of fallen profits controlled by the abused were the only thing delaying the mutual destruction of both of them. In essence, God was replaced by me. I did this, all of this. The rolling hills burned, the souls rotating the Earth, the Seas of Red, and the destruction of barriers. But they aren't happy, no matter how much they try to make it true, they merely lack sadness." He turned to face Asuka, a small look of defeat on his weathered face. He didn't look for very long, turning his head skywards.
It had been a few hours since she emerged from the LCL infested waters of Earth. The person next to her was the only person who truly understood Instrumentality. Everyone except him was part of it. He was the chosen one, the last hope for humanity. He blew it, both of them knew it.
"My mom wanted this… Still trapped in Unit-01, I made sure of it. Yui Ikari, the last testament of humanity. Even when the Earth crumbles to dust, her soul will remain. She wanted a perfect world, she wanted immortality, but most of all she wanted to be remembered." His fists flew wildly in the air, hoping to hit an imaginary foe. "Well now you've got it! You hear me, you Wicked Bitch! You're recognized! You're immortal! But you'll never get your perfect world, and that is the punishment you deserve."
She couldn't understand it. Her Mother wanted to protect her, but his was in it for a selfish reason. Momma loved her, did his Mother love him? He was her opposite. She lost her Mothers love, while he never had it. Her Father was inactive, but his Father controlled the boy's entire life.
"Rei died while you were in a coma. She self-destructed and ended up killing the 16th angel, but miraculously, she was fine! She had 'amnesia' but no, she was new. There were hundreds of clones of her. Hundreds! She was the 3rd, then she was Lilith, the mother of life. She was made of her and of my own mother. That sick bastard tried bringing her back, but failed. Rei found her freedom, if only she could have lived to see it."
She was emotionless. Her hatred of the other child had long since boiled over. She was The Commander's in more ways than one. But it was all so sick. They made the child of angels and tried to bring back a mad woman. She felt a little bad for her treatment of a girl who didn't have a chance at real life.
Nobody tortured the adversary like could always be better than her pathetic scores and her lack of self-worth. Yet it made more sense that she always said she was replaceable. She never once saw her smile. Maybe she knew about this.
"The people, they can come back. They always could have. Yet in my time on this barren world you were the first. Maybe it's just how you were programmed, to run away. Chastise Shinji for not wanting to die, yet when anyone displays emotion towards you that's not pure admiration, you run away. You truly were a big hypocrite."
He was right, he usually was. He never rejected her advances, she just made them beyond his understanding. He was used to being teased and didn't catch her attempts at flirting. It was both of their faults, yet it was neither. Neither wanted to think about it now though.
"The world existed on my hands, and I let it slip out through my fingers. Misato died, so did you, but you two can and did come back. Me? I was a false Lord whose actions were designed to fail."
He let out a loose chuckle, remembering a fond memory. "I loved an angel. Tarbris, number 17, but that wasn't who he was to me. He was Kaworu, the 5th child and last person who told me they loved me. He might have been the first too. Still, he was an angel, yet he was more human than most other people. He knew what was going to happen. Only one of us could survive, and he knew it should have been me. I don't know if he was right. Look at the once beautiful world I destroyed, everything he loved, everything except me."
Was the boy so depressed that he second guessed the decision to save humanity? Maybe he found love for the first time, but was it worth the whole world? She wasn't sure which was true.
"Then I think back to what they told me. They told me of how the world turns out, of how happy we could all be, but how it couldn't be without an AT Barrier. The end of the world was when I told Lilith I had no will to live, yet I found it. I refused to become one. In the hell of Instrumentality, I learned the only thing important."
The boy turned his head towards her, and the girl looked at him quizzically. He let out a chuckle at both her face and his next words.
"Anywhere can be Paradise if you have the will to live."
