Chapter 32: Lelouch of the re-resurrection.
A lot of people have different opinions on the most overused and cheap stereotype in media.
For me at least. It is the tsundere.
Which is basically a combination of hypocrisy and Freudian excuse combined.
What really makes a tsundere unlikeable for me, is that the victims of their wrath and abuse are usually kind friends just trying to help them or innocent bystanders minding their own business.
It is one thing to punch a mean bully after they've insulted you and put you in a headlock. But to punch friendly and helpful altruists who want nothing more than to make you happy, who sympathize with your plight and less than likeable demeanour. That is a special kind of insulting. What's worse is that this type of abusive persona is played for laughs as a character quirk that does not need to be changed.
It implies you can get away with sadistic behaviour as long as you had a sad childhood, or good intentions.
And even when Tsundere's such as Asuka do apologize, it is never for the painful punch or kick that they gave a far more likeable character during their introductory episode, making their apology come off as two faced and extremely inconsiderate. If anything, a sad childhood should make you more conscious of the fact that hurtful actions can and will scar others permanently for life.
In Evangelion 2, Asuka kicked Shinji hard enough in his face to crush his nose bloody while Misato watched on cheering her and laughing. She had only just met him in that scene. He hadn't done anything except stand there.
In Evangelion 3, knowing that Shinji had spent fourteen years in a coma, Asuka greeted him with a shattering punch to the glass. Had the glass not been there, she would have broken his skull.
She would have killed the boy who cared more about her than anyone else in the post apocalyptic hellhole the third impact left the war in, as well as the person most happy to see her alive and well after literally breaking down after thinking he accidentally killed her through no fault of his own.(it was in fact Gendo's fault since he triggered the dummy plug)
That's messed up, no matter how you look at it.
Lelouch Lamperouge vi Britannia POV
There were times when Rei was in a slightly better mood than my cruel father normally allowed, where she liked to think of herself as being like Rin Kagamine. In the sense that she died very often and had very few happy moments except when she got to be with her twin in both blood and soul, Len Kagamine.
Which of course. Made me Len.
Fitting, since had her creation not been so rushed and given such a minimalist budget, she would have brown hair the same shade as mine.
"Can I be Miku?" Mari had eagerly asked, making both our days.
"Who else but you." Rei had happily agreed.
"Oh. Oh. Then that means I'm Gumi since I'm fun and excitable" Maya later put in during our time together away from NERV.
"Since I'm the mature and reasonable one. Then I guess I'm Luka." Ritsuko (She made us call her that and not Dr Akagi now that she swore off NERV) concluded, making us all laugh heartily till our throats were dry.
All beautiful memories for me to cherish as I donned the midnight robes and velvet trousers creased to perfection, and boarded the waiting jet that had been set to autopilot, along with my chosen elites.
A splash of black in my bowl cut head, solidified the deal along with a forged, or rather "updated" passport and set of identification papers.
We would be flown by the pilotless aircraft to a legitimate airport on the nearest continent, where we would take a first class passenger plane to make the rest of the distance to the once proud and mighty Britannic empire.
No need to arrive looking so suspicious that we'd be shot before we'd gone a yard now was there?
Shinji...
The other half of me that I was not sorry to leave behind as I sat musing to myself with closed eyes.
The mask that had concealed my true self and my honest intentions, that I had grown rather accustomed towards in the uncountable eon of time everyone thought me dead and my lineage dispersed into irrelevancy.
A true pacifist who wept buckets when he was forced so much as to hurt a fly.
Not that I disliked this aspect of himself, but it was tragically not a luxury we could afford in our do or die mission to spare what remained of mankind from SEELE's pompous designs.
They called themselves gods, but a god cared for the lesser beings they were given charge over. Though I could prove nothing, I highly doubted the CEO of SEELE cried each time a child was tortured to a slow death by one of their ruthless experiments.
I could not speak for everyone. No one could.
But I liked to think at least some of the people left on Earth preferred they not pass away till their elderly twilight years.
That some innocent children would rather wait till they'd had the chance to marry and have children of their own before they were thrown face first into their coffins to be put under the ground.
That there were still a few even in this dark age with ambitions left unfulfilled who deserved at least the chance to try and make those dreams a reality.
I had kept myself well hidden during the years I allowed "Shinji Ikari" to be mistreated so basely.
I'd kept my identity secret and kept true to my ideals that kept me humane in spite of my flaws.
My ideal that if it could be helped, all suffering be redirected upon me so there was less of it to go around ruining an already ruined race that slipped only further down the slippery slope. Refusing to even try and learn from its own mistakes despite seeing time and time again, the karmic downfall their poor decisions brought upon them.
Yet there was irony in this supposedly selfless goal that even I could see but was too proud to say out loud.
Even when every last scrap of hatred that existed was directed upon me, there was still hatred.
People still had to blame someone for their misfortunes rather than reach the ideal point I intended, where no one had anyone to blame and full responsibility was taken in order that everyone might achieve total freedom.
Now I knew that my so called "father" was not really so free as he liked to think.
By heaping his mistakes on others who were guiltless, he had simply redirected his misfortune onto the world around him, and the cold, unforgiving world we shared between us all never forgave. It never forgot.
If you were not part of the solution, you were part of the problem.
The realization that spurred my disguised self into sticking himself into the hot and nerve-wracking confines of a crazed beast with no mercy for even its pilot.
The discovery that convinced me to cast aside the bloodstained mask that had been beaten to a pulp by the psychopathic antagonists, that Lelouch Lamperouge Vi Britannia had been forced to endure in his years of hiding while he bided his time thinking up the perfect plan.
No half decent plan could be rushed. But what would SEELE know about patience when they were so impatient in their lust for power, without the slightest consideration of those they sought power over?
This day at the very least. Lelouch better known as "Zero" came out of hiding to remind the world where its true loyalties lay.
To bring back hope to humanity, if only for a short while before he was forced to disappear once more to masquerade as the bratty idiot Shinji Ikari.
However, this time he would make certain that he lived on in the hearts and minds of everyone as long as there were stars in the sky, before he left once more.
Zero chance of failure.
Zero tolerance for corruption and needless wanton abuse that served no pragmatic purpose.
Zero distraction from frivolities superfluous and secondary to the main goal at hand, meaning zero ineffectiveness.
The big wigs mankind chose as their ineffectual leaders loved to squander away life's precious resources on unimportant blather.
But most of all. Zero of the chosen teammates that Zero had elected to bring with him during his day of resurrection, did not perfectly fulfil the ideal image of a flawless waifu whose very visages caused noses to bleed and onlooking eyes to pop out their sockets.
Starting with the green-haired maiden now passionately kissing my lips while her arms gripped my back with a firmness that insisted she did not want to let go anytime soon.
Her breathing was already beginning to wrack with agonizing pain and her white face was fast filling with sickly blue.
But she was determined to keep this romantic contact as long as possible and I was not about to deny her wishes selfishly as I'd done while wearing my false countenance.
It appears that even I've begun taking my pretended persona far too seriously for my own good and hers.
"I love you. My dear Snow. Forever and always, in both life and death. For you and you alone, my heart will continue to beat undefeated." I whisper in between gasps for air as near-fatal suffocation forces the two of us apart.
I spare a quick flick of my eye at the briefcase I know to be loaded with shining gems.
SEELE's insatiable greed will be their downfall.
Snow "C.C" Lamperouge vi Britannia POV
C.C. Anyone try to refer to me by those two demeaning letters rather than my actual name and
I will fight you on the side of the street. I long dropped the pretentious practice of masking my name in the name of the newfound confidence Lelouch and his honoured family bestowed upon me through their endless kindness.
Snow. Quite the unusual title for a young, delicate thing such as myself.
It's a reference to the beautiful parable of Snow White for those who are curious.
How I was once a very trusting and open book who welcomed joy into my life, before life happened and made me wary of revealing even snippets of myself to even the nicest benefactors.
How it took a true prince in both nature and in blood, to finally lift that terrible curse and allow me to become one with myself once more.
At one point, both my first and last name matched this idealistic fairy tale.
But there is no white in my family line any longer.
For the life-changing union which I finally gained the courage to realize, has stained the white snow, a bloody rouge.
Lamperouge, to be more exact.
The conspicuous yet simple silver ring I now bear round my index finger in identical fashion to my faithful captain Lelouch, stands as proof of this everlasting embrace that not even death itself could break apart.
Rei. A soulless clone with neither thoughts nor desires of her own.
The previous near death experience had left me for lack of better words; a hollow, empty shell who was forced to adopt the first identity forced upon her to maintain any sort of hope that life still held any kind of meaning to make it worth living. I had been holding out for my hero.
My prince.
The aristocrat who showed me the simple truth that a person's social class did not define them in either vice or virtue.
That these classes were just another illusion created by people to control people.
I spare a brief look at my reflection in a window as Lelouch helpfully slips another slice of my favourite pizza into my waiting lips.
It feels good to have my long, green hair and my sleeveless feminine version of the imperial black knight uniform with the gold rims back. The better to present myself as a certain redheaded bully's exact opposite. No need for a proper set of trousers. I never liked trousers for the unnecessary concealment they forced upon me.
The extravagance extends to my dark leggings whose short length gives a clear view of my now far less malnourished legs, thanks to being able to return to a proper diet following my escape from a certain totalitarian dictator whose name will not be mentioned this fine day.
It serves the purpose of giving my dear captain and husband, an unstoppable nosebleed that no amount of tissues can curb. Had I dressed this way back in Tokyo 3 as I preferred, I would have been given a hundred slaps in the face and forbidden from eating for a week.
The domineering monster...
Who said only Asuka could wear sexy outfits to really show off her charms?
My new last name has two purposes. It emphasizes how I now no longer live for myself and how I consider my life a light price for the salvation of another.
It also marks me as first mate of our crew, the black knights meaning that if by some tragic coincidence Lelouch were forced to give himself up in pursuit of our shared ideals, leadership would be handed to me rather than his sister Nunnally.
It also means I have to take part in a bunch of unnecessary parades and needless speeches during the royal festivals, but that's beside the point.
"Are you sure this plan will work, my dear Lelouch?" I dare to ask as I tingle with fear. Even I'm afraid of SEELE's unstoppable might, having seen first hand as "Rei" what they were capable of pulling off in their most deranged depths.
"I've never been more certain of anything in my life, my dear Snow."
"But aren't you afraid of the incredible weaponry SEELE are bound to have at their disposal?" I nervously gulp.
It's here that he puts his hands on my shoulders to let me see his earnest fearlessness in his expression.
"If there is one thing you've taught me in the time you've faithfully stuck by my side, as both Rei and C.C. It is not to be afraid. It is that fear can never change the outcome. You taught me that a short life of excitement and love, is better than a long one of uselessness and cowardly hiding. For that, I can never thank you enough."
Then he pulls me in for another kiss.
We don't have long before we'll be forced to slip on our masks once more for god knows how long. "Shinji" and "Rei" do deserve their chance to celebrate their own union, in light of the tragedies they've suffered with us in our name.
We might not even make it out of England alive and I want there to be no regrets before we get there.
Every last breath I have left within me shall be used to maximum effect, to demonstrate my undying love to Lelouch and the debts he has earned from me that I can never truly repay.
I feel so light headed already. But I'll be damned if I don't admit how good this feels.
Now I know that it wasn't my immortality I dreaded.
I had been gifted a precious blessing lesser men would kill for, and I disrespected my blessings until it was too late.
Everyone dreaded the final instant before death and I alone had been granted reprieve from that ominous eventuality.
I had been given the power to immortalize those I knew but who were not lucky enough to share my long life, through my deeds and my decisions.
The honour of passing wisdom long lost to a forgetful race that had lost track of all it had accomplished in the past in the sight of a grim present.
The unfinished songs that voices never shared. The unvoiced observations of great geniuses who never mustered the courage to share their awe-inspiring discoveries before their final knell sounded.
I had the longevity to change all that, and yet I ungratefully gave all that up.
Now I knew what really pained me was not my precious gift of undying.
It was the inability to share its virtues with a sorrowful world that drowned itself in its own tears from the sorrow of never being able to attain the priceless blessing, that I took for granted like a spoiled brat I was.
But hearing of Hotaru's supposed power gives me hope.
Perhaps she will be able once she's freed to realize my heartfelt wish to spread immortality to all.
For in the absence of a deadline and hence a limit of time, anything is possible.
You can become depressed but you will have as much time as you need to recover your sanity.
You can lose all your money but that is no matter when you've as much time as you need to regain your fortune, even if the next stock market boom is centuries away.
Now I know that man's greatest treasure is not money. It's time and health, for my mystical power also bestowed me a limitless ability to recover from any form of injury. Two things I had an abundance of and yet failed to appreciate in the slightest.
I hope that by saving Hotaru from SEELE, I can give these wonderful things to others who will have the good taste to appreciate them more than I ever did.
I also hope that the Pizza Hut brand that England prides itself as being the best pizza company on the face of Earth, lives up to its reputation at least in part.
My stomach is already rumbling in anticipation.
Nunnally Lamperouge Vi Britannia POV
This body hurts so much less.
I can see. I can walk. I can perform a flawless pattern of acrobatics that my old, sickly form could never manage.
Mari Makinami Illustrious, friend of esteemed doctor and world saviour Yui Ikari, I thank you for this favour.
I promise that I will not stay in your body longer than I have to. The instant my final affair with my beloved Britannic empire are set in order I will return to the spirit world along with my brother Lelouch and my sister in law Snow, as well as the rest of the friends who've accompanied me from the other side to settle a final score.
I can't promise however that we will return unscathed from the hideous dangers SEELE are bound to have ready up their sleeves, but you already knew that when you volunteered your body and soul to me through your saintly decision.
But know that I will do my utmost to see that no harm comes to you, who even curled your brown hair specifically to match that of mine when I lived and breathed as a mortal girl and not a mere spirit and vague abstraction of what once was, but can never be once more.
The meagre pages recording the history of myself and my clan, comes a distant cry to the timeless playwright Shakespeare and the feared Mongol king Gengis Khan. We certainly came nowhere as close to world dominion as he, even with my brother Lelouch's most valiant efforts.
While they have entire libraries in their honour, all we have to be faintly remembered by are a set of scantly worded picture books and entertainment films taken no more seriously than any other form of recreational fiction.
We have so much in common Mari. Which made it easy for me to take control of you compared to if I had chosen another temporary vessel that would likely have rejected me as a white blood cell rejects a deadly contagion it knows intends only on destroying its host.
The brown in your hair stands but a tone apart from mine. The amorous affection you gift upon your own extended family Shinji and Rei, rivals that of mine when I chose to stand alongside my brother despite the mass of hatred his humanitarian work incurred upon himself and his romantic partner C.C.
The quiet stiffness of your Rei it must be said, is deeply reminiscent of my C.C, or as I should start calling her, my Snow.
She agreed to stop concealing so much of herself for Lelouch's sake. I'm sure your sister in law, Rei could relate.
My decision of clothes was simple in comparison to the rest of my group for this important mission.
A standard issue Ashford Academy female uniform.
Which consisted mainly of a long sleeved shirt of pale, milky white bearing its long forgotten emblem of garish tawdriness on its back. All unnecessary since it was hidden behind a jacket of creamy yellow. Being a stickler for tradition was always one of my weaknesses, teased my brother from time to time, never in bad taste.
I have a grey skirt, far more conservative in its relative length than Snow's legless black suit.
To further put our differences into perspective, I've also completed my look with navy leggings that climb all the way from my feet to my waist and a flat-heeled set of navy shoes to juxtapose her high coal boots.
I don't know what the upcoming battle will bring or if we will win or not.
But even so, I can make a sincere promise as the jet soldiers onwards notwithstanding my concerns.
If SEELE lose, I swear with utmost respect to congratulate them for their courage regardless. I have already made Lelouch and the others promise that we will not be too rough in our handling of our opponents in spite of the multitude of atrocities they've brazenly committed.
We will have a grand festival arranged for the occasion as proof of our generous intent. Everyone loves festivals.
If we lose, my final breath will be spent kneeling honourably in defeat while I commend their cleverness that even my brother's strategic prowess could not overcome.
We will not cry nor rage at our defeat. We are above such common vileness as the nobility whose duty is rather to set a shining example of industriousness that will inspire rather than belittle those who've granted us charge over them.
Yet the great consequences for failing this time are so great that we will not fold so easily.
Hotaru Tomoe was such a lovely dear from the little information we were given about her, that to die knowing the unspeakable horrors the brutes holding her captive have in store for her, would be worse than an eternity in hell with Lucifer.
Mari had seen for herself the disastrous consequences that the thoughtless abuse of a single child could have upon mankind as an entirety. Not to mention just how unpleasant and unnecessary such cruelty was in the first place, especially in a time of global catastrophe such as this.
Another aspect we shared in common to make her body a perfect fit as the vehicle of my consciousness.
Her thoughts were with mine and mine with hers.
Knowing we do not have much time left together, I gently give my brother Lelouch a light peck on his right temple. Normally I'd have some witty remark but this time, I felt that this was enough.
I would spend the rest of the ride, practising gymnastics starting with the cartwheel and front flip.
It was a true luxury that I never had the chance to enjoy back in my paralyzed, blind real body.
Bill Nye the Science Guy POV
"My sweet Kallen. Turn the stereo up as high as it will go and let us rock and roll." I brashly order to which my deep pink haired, crimson clad lab assistant eagerly complies.
I give my own short cyan bob a flip as she readies her eager vocal cords.
Such shame that the hair I spent so long growing back now that I was free from Gendo's nastiness, but we all must make sacrifices in the name of the greater good sometimes.
I strike a pose with one fingered hand forward and one foot back as the best assistant a scientifically inclined psychopath can ask for, breaks into the most badass number the scientific comity will be releasing upon the world.
It will certainly spark a rekindled interest in a now despised area of education, whose reputation was ruined by a selfish few who represented an exception rather than the rule.
I swear as Kallen's voice ignites a burning flame within me, that I will restore the rightful reputation of scientists everywhere.
Bill Nye the Science Guy.
Bill. Bill. Bill. Bill.
Bill Nye the science guy.
SCIENCE RULES!
Bill Nye. The Science guy.
Bill Bill Bill Bill.
Inertia is a property of matter.
Bill Bill Bill Bill
Bill Nye, the science guy.
T minus seven seconds.
Bill, Bill. Bill. BILL BILL.
BILL NYE THE SCIENCE GUY!
Bill Nye? That's a funny way to spell Lloyd Asplund of the royal Asplund household.
Some dunces are bound to echo when I step out hot and heavy into the capital of Britannia.
That's because it is a funny way to spell an awful name, that also for the sake of the greater good I have discarded.
I had spent long enough in my selfish life scaring the nice children away.
My pride. My sociopathy. My crass stiffness.
It led to Shinji running away from me and into the waiting fist of Asuka, that stood ready to pummel him without reason or mercy.
It frightened Rei and made her perfectly subservient to a heartless slaver, who was as ready to enslave her and work her to death as he was prepared to do to me.
The hypocrisy in my past actions was stunning even to myself, and I was going to right it all starting from here and now.
I was going to make myself super kid friendly.
Parents were going to trust me totally with their pure and wroth boys and girls, and I was going to reward their trust with the most entertaining and educational tour these young souls had seen in an age.
I would receive medals titling me as the mother of the year, and Rei was going to see that all my unforgivable sins were a thing of the past. To prove she could trust me.
I was going to make school fun again. I was going to give Hotaru a bright future that SEELE would deny her through mimicry of my past mistakes.
My psychology sessions with Shinji and Rei in the past month had yielded excellent results.
Shinji's severe anxiety became only mild, and Rei's schizophrenic episodes had practically subsided.
Shinji's propensity to self harm had gone from spontaneous, to controllable through sheer force of will.
Rei no longer exhibited suicidal intentions in which she morbidly desired death for no logical reason.
But unless we survived to continue these wholesome therapeutic times of sanctity for yet some more time, it was apparent that poor Shinji and Rei would pass away very mentally ill.
I could not have that happening. Not on my watch. I was a mother of two now and I took my responsibilities seriously.
What Misato had not provided her two needy offspring, I would do so in her place. It was the purpose I assigned myself when leaving Tokyo 3 to go along with Shinji and his crew's escape.
Captain Lelouch.
First mate Snow.
Sailing master Nunnally.
Which left me as the all-knowing brainbox of this ship, Quartermaster Bill.
Bill Nye the science guy.
Someone had to agree to give up their gender for the sake of obscuring our true identities for the duration of this urgent mission, and I took the reigns.
I had always been the one most curious as to whether my life would have turned out better had I been born the opposite gender as a man and not a woman.
There always seemed to be a baseless belief upheld even now, that women were somewhat less intellectually able. A century ago, even rich women couldn't go to college.
Well this was my chance to test my theory.
Was a simple modification in gender all I would have needed in NERV to be treated with the proper respect I deserved?
I had traded my boring white lab coat for a far more appealing blue one, with a fancy black bowtie to boot. And a pair of goggles to show I took everything in life as another interesting experiment in which useful data could be obtained under careful observation.
Kallen Kozuki POV
So why wasn't I chosen to play the role of Nunnally? I am Shinji's sister after all. Well alright, only his half sister related from Gendo's line but did that really matter?
We were family and that was already joyous news for both of us.
It would have been a dead giveaway. People look at Lelouch and then me. They say: Hey, that regal prince looks just like Shinji and if that brunette is his sister, maybe that means that right there is actually Maya Ibuki, Gendo's bastard in disguise as well.
Bang. Bang. Boom. We get plastered with bullets before we've gone a yard while Asuka and Misato start dancing merrily on our corpses, singing hallelujah at the top of both their lungs.
The actual reason was something more tragic.
I had undertaken none of the responsibilities a good sister aught to. I had let my little brother endure years of sadistic torture before stepping in, and even Mari had beaten me to the punch in calling out his abusers.
Mari had been a better big sister to Shinji and Rei than I ever had.
I gave Lelouch a nervous shake of his hand. I didn't deserve the reward of kissing him as Nunnally had right to do.
Nunnally was Mari's stairway to heaven, while Kallen was my road to redemption.
While Nunnally was a sweet roll of cinnamon to be loved by all, Kallen was a dirty scumbag that was not worth even a glance. The excessive amount of red in the dress I wore symbolized how morally corrupt my years serving as Gendo's Lieutenant had made me. A sign that I was still full of immoral sins that needed to be purified before I could really regain my sanity.
An expression that my character went more for brash and sassy, while Mari and Rei were more reserved and passive.
Fitting, considering the rank I ended up receiving in Lelouch's crew: the black Knight's.
Captain Lelouch.
First mate Snow.
Sailing master Nunnally.
Quartermaster Bill
Gunner Kallen. The burning cannonball.
That was me. While my crew had the luxury of ducking behind cover if a confrontation proved inevitable, I had no such choice and would be the one in charge of actually providing the cover fire that afforded the others safety at great risk to myself. Such was my penalty for failing Shinji when he needed a sympathetic hand in his misery the most.
Making matters worse was that we had to go without any weapon. SEELE's security systems were incredibly stringent and any forbidden item would jeopardize our task before we'd began.
I would have to improvise in the way only a master killer such as myself knew how.
A drop from a high window down to solid concrete several stories below.
The common assortment of kitchen knives, garden shears and other typical tools most did not know the true lethality of which they kept at ease beside them.
A swimming pool that could drown even a grown man in a matter of seconds, especially one that came with electrical features to administer a hearty zap.
Bleach. Aerosol. Lethal doses of medication that could easily be slipped into any food or drink.
A simple car, capable of accelerating to breakneck speeds to ram apart the human skeleton with ruthless ease.
These were some of the devices in the obscured arsenal of everywhere that I knew of.
I never wanted to use such knowledge but desperate times called for desperate measures.
I loathed even the prospect of causing harm, but SEELE would gleefully cause harm to all the planet if I did not intervene. It was a choice of two wrongs and sometimes, I had to take the lesser wrong.
"I won't fail you this time, little brother" I swear on bended knee as I clasp my sweaty palms in prayer, which did not go unnoticed by Lelouch.
"I will stay by your side and do whatever needs to be done."
We were in this together, well and truly.
Suzaku Kururugi POV
I remember how it had taken all my wits to keep from laughing out loud as Shinji described his ingenious scheme to me.
The intense waves of excitation that coursed through my veins as I sprayed my hair brown and readied my own pair of Black Knight uniform identical to Lelouch's that I had prepared knowing this day would come.
How Squid girl had looked at me with a level of pride never before seen even in my finest hour prior to now, as she helped forge me a set of false identification papers before wishing me the best of luck.
But most shocking of all was that our separation did not conclude without yet another promotion to my already sky-high rank in her Grande Armee.
Tank commander Kaworu was about to laid to rest alongside General Kaworu and Ensign Kaworu before him.
Yet another rank was about to be added to the big book of military protocols to account for the magnitude of the services I'd rendered my lady without even knowing it.
My new rank. The second rank above four star General effective as of now.
Primarch. The first Primarch of the first empress of the modern ages since the abolition of empirical state affairs two centuries ago to make way for a false democracy.
I was one step closer to becoming the successor of the esteemed saint of death from an age of heroes long past.
The quickly fading to obscurity, legendary saviour of man and machine: Robute Guillman.
The nameless soldier time forgot.
The Squid kingdom following my promotion, would be renamed the Squid Imperium.
It would still be completely democratic and appreciative of the rights of its expanding pool of citizens, disbanded the instant a single uppity naysayer disagreed with its protocol the slightest bit.
I and my lady, merely guiding symbols rather than hard and fast lawgivers. Self-discipline the only type of discipline we sought to enforce upon our peoples.
I recall how Squid girl had personally arrived in my room to wish Shinji's team luck herself.
How she found her fellow squid girl Rei every bit as attractive as I had rightly claimed she would, even as her smile twitched a little when Rei was sadly forced to admit that Gendo had cut off her tentacles in a fashion in which they could never be regrown to be cashed in on the black market.
So here I was, on a first class jet Squid girl had explicitly paid for me out of her own pocket.
A crowdfund backed by every girl of Oorai Tankery, supported by an even large crowd of volunteering Japanese citizens who wished to warmly thank their liberators.
"I am not a liberator" I took grave pains to sternly reiterate when they cheered me during the countless rallies I tried time and time again to politely insist were not necessary.
"Liberators do not exist." I clarified, with an upheld hand and a sombre frown. "The people. Meaning you. All of you. Liberated yourselves when the time came."
Somehow this only made them cheer louder, forcing me to shield my ears as they lifted me up and threw me ten feet into the air.
It was funny how by refusing attention, I had only amassed a mountain of such a thing instead.
Perhaps if Asuka wanted to be noticed so badly herself, she should have considered copying me and by extension Shinji since it was from him I learned the inner joy of modesty.
Primarch Kaworu.
Today to be known as Primarch Suzaku.
Deckhand Suzaku in Lelouch's merry gang.
A gruelling job that measured even lower in authority compared to the Gunner.
After my dishonest cheating of Shinji's trust in trying to manipulate him into causing the next impact, this was only fair.
This was my self-inflicted rite of penitence.
We were finally all meeting. All of us. All of Shinji's friends and loved ones in one place.
The stars had aligned.
Asuka POV
"SEELE has prepared a fine platoon of Evangelion-like mechanicals in England for your arrival. You will be given the finest of hospitality when you arrive. Your current Evangelion has taken significant damage and that is why you will be given a replacement. We need you there to ensure extra security while SEELE completes its final plan to brainwash the captured Sailor Saturn to our cause. This will undo all the damage Shinji and his irresponsible rascal friends have caused"
An orderly briefs me in as I sit aloofly in an aristocratic flameproof airship (thanks to the Heidelberg disaster my country has yet to recover fully from) coldly glaring at the legion of servants dispatched to attend my whims for the duration of this trip.
Shinji. You truly have gone too far this time.
The same for you, Rei.
I was thinking a brutal uppercut to your chin once I found the two of you would be punishment enough, but now I'm considering I might need the assistance of a concrete wall.
With which to slam your fragile skulls into to really beat into the both of you.
You just can't understand can you, Shinji?
Ever since you were judged a better pilot than me, I swore eternal hatred upon you?
I don't care if you unintentionally beat me. I trained years and years in Germany.
You can flatter me all you like with praises, but it still won't change the vitriolic disdain I felt for you since the moment I first heard Misato call you a better pilot than me.
You tell me I have entire parties thrown in my honour while you don't. How I have basically the population of Japan eating out the palm of my hand while no one gives the slightest care for your pain and struggles.
Well I'd have more attention than that if it were not for you and your little miss perfect of a suck up to our stupid commander who can't see past his own nose.
You deserve to be ignored and belittled endlessly for getting in my way.
Shinji. I know you are coming to England to free Hotaru. "The firefly of the Earth" as I'm sure you prefer to call her. You'll bore me with your bible thumping holier than thou attitude as you rant on and on about how you won't let her suffer as you did. How she's the key to ending the Evanvelion-Angel wars once and for all.
But did you once consider that if these wars were to draw to a conclusion, how I'd be out of a job?
The difficult skill I spent all my youth honing when I wasn't busy partying or basking in my fame, will become pointless when this war ends and I'll be back to square one as you awe the world with your cello and cooking skills. Who cares if a few hundred lives have to be lost each day? They're not people I know and they don't affect me in the slightest.
So come on Shinji. I'm waiting for you. You wanted a fight and now you'll get one.
You should have stayed in our apartment and I would have let you serve me as long as you lived.
It was a wild fluke that you defeated NERV but SEELE are not going to fall so easily to your foolish antics.
Kyoko POV
A deep sorrow burns within me as I play the memories I've gleaned from my brief link with Asuka and the others on repeat.
First she kicked Shinji's skull because he happened to be standing outside the shower when she suddenly without warning stepped out. He certainly wasn't expecting it and he never even knew he was making a mistake as she launched her foot into his nose, caving it in and making it bleed.
I remember how only pride stopped him from crying as their caretaker, a certain "Misato Katsuragi" got off to his misery with a high pitched giggle.
Then my daughter slapped Rei's face. She slapped the bluenette again and again until the smaller girl's cheeks were rose red.
She quickly hid her hands behind her back as the elevator door opened and the NERV staff were too late to see the brutal beatdown she'd delivered upon the Japanese girl, who had acted with far more grace and humility than herself, if Shinji's thoughts of her were to be believed which I certainly did.
Shinji's teeth were so out of place and close to falling out. There were so many internally bleeding veins and arteries in his brain. His back was crooked. He had no money to buy painkillers so he had to pretend it was nothing.
But why Asuka? Why?
I sense the savage glee in her thoughts as she departs on the airship to go to England. She anticipates Shinji's arrival and she will really let him have it in a devilish rage that can be quelled by nothing.
She truly has no qualms whether he lives or not this time.
I understand now. Being a parent doesn't just mean hugs, kisses and feeding your children to keep them wanting for nothing. I've created a remorseless killer and it's my job to stop her as her mother.
I'm not dead. I'm not.
There must be something I can do to not let Shinji and Rei get pummelled so mercilessly once more...
If I had eyes I'd be bawling them out right now.
Wait. I moved. My Evangelion moved. The inner strength of my emotional turmoil made it move!
I just have to do it again. Yes. There it is. The metallic beast's legs are straightening and I'm slowly managing to stand it up. The improved power coil of this Evangelion is really proving its benefits. This would never be possible back in unit 2.
I think of Shinji's screams as blood welled from his crushed jawbone and broken nose in one of his most traumatizing thoughts that I briefly caught sight of.
I allow this empathy to power me as I will my Evangelion forward, one step at a time.
These buildings are full of evil scum who did nothing when Shinji was being beaten fatally behind closed doors.
I knew that if I let them live, they would surely take the innocent lives of other children since it was a well known fact that those who failed the synch test, died slowly and painfully.
"What is happening? I thought Asuka's Evangelion wasn't working." a guard in a watchtower shouts in shock.
I know that I cannot let him raise the alarm.
Gaining improving control with each step, I march right up to him and manage to clench a heavy, metal fist.
I hold it at the ready just as he notices me and drops his communications device.
"You're not going anywhere. You monster" I manage to sharply retort, glad to be able to return to my native language of German again.
"Who, who are you?" The terrified sociopath with a shady face of scars manages to choke out as he raises his arms in vain to defend himself.
Normally I would pity him, but years of being trapped in a bodiless state of unending agony had taken its toll on my psyche. Seeing first hand from Shinji, Rei and all the other pilots and a few of the kinder NERV staff, how harshly NERV was willing to treat even its most valuable assets, was the final straw.
"Ich bin Optimus Prime" I mightily roared, pure venom coating my every syllable. "Und du bist ein decipticon. Dass ich zestoren muss"
Not giving him a chance to ask for mercy I knew from a quick scan of his mind that he didn't deserve, I swung the ball of clenched titanium fingers forward to reduce him and the post he'd been standing upon into a mess of shattered bones and broken wood.
A few sharply dressed snipers, alerted by the din were already beginning in vain to take shot after shot at my solid hull to no effect. There was a strange sort of satisfaction within me as I let them have it one by one, with a salvo of strangely shaped missiles I found myself capable of commanding with my thoughts alone.
The majestically glowing shower of shrapnel, lit the quickly dimming winter afternoon horizon like fireworks.
"Wait for me please, my dearest daughter Asuka. Soon we will be together once more"
I solemnly vow.
Then I race for the nearest NERV branch office building conveniently situated very close to the hangar I had been situated within.
A single kick makes it sway side to side. A double kick collapses it with a mighty foosh.
Slabs of crumbling concrete rain down the falling structure as it sinks to the ground, hellish screams filling the serene air.
It's time to be the attentive mother that my neglected little doll needs.
It's time that she finally got a time out for being so naughty.
I'm truly sorry that our reunion couldn't be more grand. But it is what it is.
Dear Yui. See me now and rejoice. I have found a way back to the world of the living.
Your work will be done and your son will be protected.
Asuka will pay for her mistreatment to him.
Your unending faith in me was never misplaced. I'll prove it here and now to you so you may rest easy at long last.
Again, really special thanks to fictionelement777, neoWarkid4, bandiras2, An enemy of the state, Fantasian, Kycosoccerref and every other unnamed guest for your kind and generous reviews.
You are all great people. Thank you so much for reading and see you all next time and bye.
You're kind reviews bring a tear to my eye.
Any and all reviews welcome. You will be credited and appreciated for your generous patronage.
I'm really glad to have all you epic people here with me.
Happy new year and stay safe.
Here's a curious question if you're interested. Who would you say the most adorable Anime Waifu in Anime history is if you had to pick one? I'd probably say its Sailor Saturn for me since even though everyone who's meant to be her friend treats her like trash, she still finds it in herself to be a sacrifice to save all of them in the end.
