Sekhmet: And the main story is done. There is an epilogue coming up though. Man, this has been one hell of a journey.
Susano-o: Yep, and now we move onto the sequel and the alternate universe story!
Sekhmet: Which AU, the Jojo crossover, the dimension journeys, or the 3.5 I'm working on alone at the moment?
Susano-o: Yes.
Sekhmet: Ok. We'll reminisce a bit more in the epilogue then. Here we goooOOOO!
Chapter 21: Hello World (The End, Part 2)
"Get ready everyone," Asuka ordered as she grabbed a smaller rocket launcher and firing it, letting it bounce off their AT-Field's and revealing they had overlapped them into a giant wall to protect them in flight. "Shit that's not good," She mumbled grabbing a spear. "Ok new plan, guess we're going in close range."
"Wait for them to come to us, got it." Mary said, also trading her minigun for a spear. "Seems like a bad idea, but we don't really have a choice, do we?"
"I have a horrible sinking feeling…" Adelise replied warily.
"Me too," Isabelle said dropping her guns and grabbing her sniper cannon. At the sight, the EVAs landed, their black and white wings folded into little backpacks. They seemed to laugh as they wielded glaives.
"And break!" Mary said, charging forward with her spear. The EVA proved to be just as much a match however, as it was able to effortlessly block her attack, and push her back onto the defensive. A close quarters match ensued, neither getting a hit on the other. The EVA was able to push her to the ground, and Mary barely rolled out of the way before it slammed the blade into the ground. She used the rebound to spear the EVA through the side, felling it. Mary took the opportunity to stab it multiple times in the head and torso until it stopped moving. "Good news guys, you can treat them like Angels."
….
"Well that's good," Asuka mumbled as she and one of the EVA's started dancing around each other in a dangerous dance of spear vs Glaive. The EVA swung it's glaive around trying to slice off her limbs. Asuka deflected the ends with her own polearm until a lucky cut shattered her weapon to bits. "Damn it!" She shouted jumping back to avoid another swing that would have taken her head off.
Yes
"Asuka catch!" Isabelle yelled, throwing her a chainsaw prong-sword, Asuka smirked and grabbed the blade out of the sky.
"Alright then," Asuka grinned as the blade whirled to life.
"Asuka the Magoroku-E Sword is untested!" Ritsuko yelled.
"Well then I'm testing it," Asuka snapped back, swinging the blade at the white EVA the two blades collided Asuka's slid through the larger blade like a knife through butter, spilling LCL all over the ground as the weapons seemed to scream in pain, and then into the MP EVA's chest sending it staggering back. "Die you ugly excuse for an EVA!" She shouted slicing the enemy EVA's head off.
Huffing and puffing Asuka screamed and started stabbing the blade into the now headless corpse till it stopped twitching. "Who's next!?" She screamed walking across the forest till she found another MP EVA. "Bring it!" She screamed engaging in another fight.
….
Adelise was using two prog swords of her own to fight an EVA, mostly deflecting it's hits and backing off to about its swinging. At one point she was able to stop its blade with one of her swords and shank the EVA in the side with the other, making it stutter and fall. She slit its throat, broke its neck, and stabbed its skull.
"How unsanitary…" Adelise muttered. She pulled the knife out of its head and engaged the next nearest one, fighting with it briefly before stabbing it through the head under its chin and slashing it through the chest a few times.
….
"Ah this is truly a dance of death!" Mari giggled swinging her dual saw around like a nutcase, confusing even the two MP's couldn't track her movements till she was right on top of them shredding their armor apart like it was made of papier-mâché. One of the MP's finally just charged at her swinging madly.
"Got you~!" Mari sang sung ducking the blade and slamming the chainsaw into the MP's stomach, ripping it into what could only be described as chunky salsa. "And now for you!" She laughed running at the MP again.
...
"Boom," Isabelle whispered, firing another shot through an MP's head. "Headshot," She smirked loading another bullet, sitting on top of NERV was a great sniper position, allowing her to provide support and deal with a few of her own without getting close. "...I think his mate saw me," She mumbled before one of the MP's charged at her. "Yes yes he did!" She shouted sliding down the side of NERV to find a new hiding spot. "I'm gonna ask for wings after this is over."
….
Shinji sat contemplating his current situation in his plug as he made his way down to Terminal Dogma. "It's murder, but he's going to end the world, but it's still murder, but he's hurt everyone he's ever come into contact with…this is harder than I thought it would be."
"Stop right there!" A few soldiers yelled firing a few rockets at him. Shinji blinked as the rockets bounced off his field. "Umm Misato, we have intruders." He said over the coms.
"Yeah I know, Ray is handling them here so just keep going."
"Ok...Misato is murder wrong?"
"...In this situation no, it's the lesser of two evils, better Gendo dies than he completes his plan and kills us all," Misato said seriously.
"Listen to her Shinji, she is wise," Ray said back. "After all I've just killed four...sorry five people in the last ten minutes, if I didn't then they would have killed everyone in here."
Shinji went quiet, but he slowly sat up straighter and walked faster towards Terminal Dogma, ready to end this forever.
….
"Is that all of them?" Mary asked.
"Yeah," Isabelle sighed, lowering her sniper. "I think we hit them enough."
"Good. Let's get back to the fun part then." Adelise said, before more creepy laughter was heard.
"Oh that doesn't sound good," Mari mumbled.
The MP EVAs weren't dead, not by a long shot. Despite their numerous injuries, they rose up again, keeping up their grins and laughter. Once up, they simply picked up their weapons and started attacking again.
"Are you kidding me?!" Asuka shouted as she was assaulted by an EVA. "Why won't these things just die?!"
"Come on!" Mari giggled as she swung her saw some more, suddenly one of the MP's weapons transformed mid-swing into a black lance with a double-helix in the end.
"Mari watch out!" Adelise screamed.
"What that-!?" Mari yelled as the MP's spear tore open her AT-Field and impaled her in the stomach, pinning her to the ground. "AHHHH-!" She screamed in pain.
"Oh fuck-" Mary said, her distraction giving another MP the opportunity to transform its weapon and stab her in the chest, it's two prongs barely missing the core. "Oh no you didn't-" she grunted in pain before the spear was pulled out and impaled to the ground in the same place. A hurgh sound followed as she kicked at the MP weakly through the pain.
"Damn it bloody piker!" Isabelle shouted as one of them charged her swinging its spear as she tried to block it with her gun barrel, the spear went through it like a hot knife through butter and then into her arm and leg, pinning her down as well.
"Oh no-" Adelise cried, and the last EVA with a weapon slashed its weapon across her face and then stabbed her through the shoulder and pinned her to the ground as well.
"No…," Asuka whispered as she was surrounded by the remaining five MP's surrounded her. "No no no no I'm not going to let you kill my friends!" She screamed attacking the MP's in a reckless charge with her chain-blade, this proved to be ineffective as four grabbed her and pinned her down with their spears in her limbs. "I'm not going to die like this!" Asuka roared as she and EVA-02 fought against the spears harder and harder, getting more and more frantic, suddenly EVA-02's mouthplate ripped open like a saurian mouth filled with sharp teeth that she used to tear apart the remaining MP's hand when it reached for her neck. "Die!" She roared tearing her limbs free and throwing the MP's away as EVA-02's armor exploded off it while blue rods began extending from inside it's shoulders and back.
"Asuka!" Mari screamed as she watched the transformation unfold, EVA-02's limbs elongated as it's armor plating kept either falling off or simply exploding off as it became more bestial.
"I'm fine," Asuka grunted in pain as she felt every bit of her EVA's transformation herself, making her eyes glow a radioactive green and her teeth elongate. "I-I'm not going to let this ugly motherfuckers win!" She roared ejecting her umbilical cord and charging at the now unarmed and unhanded MP and tearing out its throat with her teeth while tearing at it's chest with her claws. "If they're gonna keep coming back then we'll just have to as well!" She growled as the MP's core was exposed, that she then chomped down on, consuming it and triggering another growth, this time her core plating ripped open as Unit-02 integrated the newly consumed S2 organ into itself, repairing the damage to her limbs and removing the internal battery timer. "Now we're even!" She laughed as she moved to engage the other four MP's.
….
"Well when in Cleveland," Isabelle said lashing out at her MP and snagging it by the ankle. Tripping it up she dragged it over and slammed her EVA's head horn into its chest, the blunt edge worked like a pickaxe, caving in the EVA's chest sending bloody chunks everywhere as she finally got to the core. "Come on, come on," She growled as finally forced Unit-06's mouth open and dug into the core. "Oh...oh yeah this tastes like shit, but I'm gonna finish it, because that's what a woman does," She mumbled with a full mouth as she finally ripped herself free. While her EVA repaired its damage she grabbed her prog-knife and finished off the downed EVA. "Now who's next?" She smirked charging at another MP.
….
Mary gave one last kick to the MP that was trying to eat her, pushing it away to give her time to rip out the spear holding her down and pull herself up off the ground. She picked up her own spear that she had dropped and engaged an MP in a spear battle for the ages. With a sweep that knocked the MP's spear away and snapped her own, she pounced on the MP and clawed at its jugular, and snapped its neck after that didn't really work. She dug into its chest and ripped out the core, forcing Unit 5's mouth open and shoving the organ inside. "...Well it's not the worst thing I've ever eaten…" She muttered, and just focused on eating it as fast as she could, the damage to her EVA being repaired in seconds.
….
"Get over here!" Mari shouted grabbing the MP by its head. "Take this! And This!" She said slamming the MP's head into her knee repeatedly. "Give me your face!" She screamed digging her hands into the MP's jaw and ripping the head in two. While it was regenerating she ripped open it's chest and tore out it's core. Kali Ma Shakti de!" She chanted as she devoured the core before finally ripping herself off the spear, picking it up, and charging back into the fray.
….
Adelise ripped the spear from her shoulder and pulled out her knives just in time to catch the MP on both sides of its chest. She twisted the knives around, essentially butterflying it's chest open. She kicked it away and ripped the core out in one swift moment, forcing her Unit's mouth open and shoving the core in. "Oh, this is terrible…" she gagged. Nevertheless, she swallowed it, and once her EVA was repaired, she rushed back into battle to help her friends.
…
Asuka was a wild beast as she fought the MP's, despite only landing a few blows she was holding them back long enough for the other four to jump into the fray.
"Destroy the cores completely!" Asuka ordered shoving the EVA Isabelle was tagoing with away.
Mari armed her prog knife and carved huge gashes in one of the MPs, popping out the core like an avocado pit and stabbing it until it broke apart in her hands. Mary shanked another with the broken end of her spear until it dropped, then carved out the core and smashed it under her foot.
….
Adelise grabbed one of the spears in the ground and slammed it into the MP's thigh, forcing it in place as she started hacking at its arms and legs, leaving it looking like the Black Knight as she finished carving it apart. "I can cut fabric, I can certainly cut up a monster like you," She said flaying the core apart into tiny chunks too small to regenerate. "Another one bites ze dust," She said dusting off her hands just as Isabelle's opponent was sent flying past her. "Oh, here we go again."
….
The last MP's moaned in pain as it stood up, opening its wings it took to the sky to fly into NERV itself.
"Oh no you don't!" Isabelle shouted ripping a wing pack off one of the dead MP's and slapping it on her back, the newly integrated S2 organ made quick work attaching the new piece, allowing Isabelle to take to the sky and fly after it. "Hello!" Isabelle smirked stabbing the EVA's leg to pull herself up to its back. "And goodbye," She joked ripping off the EVA's wings, sending it careening to the ground where it was swiftly snatched out of the air and torn apart by Asuka like a dog catching a toy.
…
Shinji stood at the door to Terminal Dogma stealing himself for what was to come. "I can do this," He thought ripping the door open.
"Oh," Reilith said as she heard the doors grind open. "That would be our final guest," She said smirking.
Gendo turned and saw Shinji ripping open the doors and stepping inside. "Yes," Gendo said. "He's here."
Shinji wadded his way through the LCL lake over to where the two were talking. "...Hello...Father."
"...Hello...Shinji."
"...I've come to stop you."
"... I know."
The two then stopped talking, deciding instead to stare at each other. Shinji's hands twitched on the controls as he worked to summon the courage again to take the spear out of Rei and stab Gendo. Meanwhile Gendo didn't move, he didn't even seem to twitch as the two giants loomed over him preparing to strike.
"...Shinji."
Shinji twitched at that single word. "Yes?"
"Before you do anything," Gendo said. "I want you to know, I am sorry."
Shinji felt rage fill him, but held back as Gendo continued.
"I'm sorry I ran away from you," He said looking at the wall away from Reilith and Shinji. "After Yui died….I knew I couldn't raise you….I could see by the way you looked at me that you hated me for what happened to her…" He chuckled. "In a way….the two of us are very similar."
"..."
"-But," He said calmly. "I can't let you stop me."
"...I know," Shinji said. "-But I can't let you do it."
In a blink of an eye he grabbed the spear, ripping it out of Reilith's back and stabbing it through Gendo's AT-Field. Gendo coughed up blood as he slumped forward onto the spears prong. "Yui….I'll see you again soon…." He said smiling as he succumbed to his wounds.
….
Reilith stretched herself out and with an angelic screech a massive hole ripped through the entirety of NERV and out of the GeoFront.
"I….am…..free" Reilith boomed as she ascended through the hole and out into space, dragging the EVA's out along with the entire LCL lake.
….
"What the fuck is that? Mary asked. The rumbling had died down, but now it was back and even worse.
"I don't know!" Mari yelled as she grabbed Isabelle's leg so she could stay standing.
"Misato?" Adelise asked. "Do you know?"
"...Misato isn't here," Ray said calmly opening up the com window, showing the entire bridge was filled to his knees with LCL and clothing.
"What happened!?" Asuka shouted.
"Lilith happened," Ray explained. "And you had all best hold on, this is about to get worse."
"How could this get worse?" Mary asked. As she said this a bright light appeared through NERV, followed quickly by a large white object, EVA-01, and a rush of LCL that quickly flooded the GeoFront.
"Like that," Ray said as he, the remaining EVA's, and the bodies of the MP's that retained their cores were all dragged into the light and out of the GeoFront. As they flew into the sky they could see the LCL below flooding the streets, turning anyone it came into contact with into LCL as well, as if to add insult to injury. 'I Melt With You' by Modern English came over the speakers.
"MARY NOT THE FUCKING TIME!" Asuka roared.
"It's on shuffle, I have no control over it!" Mary yelled back.
"THEN TURN IT THE FUCK OFF!" Asuka roared.
"I'm a little busy here!" Mary yelled, her EVA's arms and legs getting bound to a crucifix.
"We all are! We still don't need commentary from the peanut gallery!" Asuka yelled as she was bound as well, the others were as well, forming a circle around EVA-01, Ray was floating in front of him surrounded by the remains of the MP's that were now flayed out on their backs. Finally Reilith herself appeared from the atmosphere, and above her a halo formed, then quickly expanded into a multi-ringed portal with billions of lights floating inside, more lights started floating up from the earth and collecting in Reilith's hands.
"Shinji Ikari," She said slowly.
Shinji has been gawking at the entire procession in fear and confusion. "Y-Yeah?"
"What is your desire?" She asked.
It took a long time for Shinji to respond, mostly because he was still processing everything that had just happened. "...I want you to fix the world."
"...Very well," Reilith said smiling. "A good choice...Shinji-kun." Then the world went white.
…..
Shinji appeared in a white room, completely devoid of features. As he looked around in confusion, the world around him seemed to form back together, first starting with sketch lines forming the bridge and adding people and more features slowly. "Fly Me To The Moon" was playing softly from somewhere unknown.
"This is... This is nice. I... This is the end. O-ok... Where exactly am I?! Um... Oh, here's the song. Oh, good. Um, there's some things that are still unresolved here, guys. H-how do I get home? Ah, What do I eat? W-was Ray like my son, or... a clone... or… Hell, was this all in my mind? Wh-what's an EVA? Is that sort of a... Freduian thing? Er, um... Am I real? Oh, hell... does a bus run through here? I mean, I'd like to go home now, but... um... Ah, god - Where's home? Ok, ok, I musn't run away, I musn't run away. I got that. Good. Ok. Now, if I were to run away, let's analyze that: Where the FUCK would I go? I'm in a blank white room! Ah, is this how you end a series? I mean, is this 'where we go from here?' Ok, the sequel better sure as HELL make up for this, I'm tellin' ya right now - 'cause I'm stuck in nowhereland. Ya ran outta ink too, didn't you, ya bastards?"
As the final details faded in, everyone started talking as if nothing was happening, but they suddenly stopped, as if they all realized that something was amiss. Mary's tape was playing "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", and could be heard through the cut silence.
"W-what happened?" Asuka asked looking around, they were back on the bridge, the hole was still there, but everyone was still around.
"I-I think we finally won," Misato said slowly, before being tackled in a flying hug by the pilots all screaming some variation of mom at the same time.
"Yes," Rei said emerging from the shadows. "We have successfully stopped SEELE and Gendo's plans, they will no longer be a problem."
"And by that you mean-?" Ray asked, emerging from the other side.
"I liquified them," Rei finished plainly, before she herself was tackled by Isabelle, leading to a makeout session as they rolled across the floor.
"Blue!" Isabelle screamed hugging her hard.
"Yes I am back," Rei said smiling as she hugged her back just as hard. "I missed you all so much," She said as tears fell from her eyes.
"Aww those two are so cute," Adelise chuckled as Ray put his arm around her, making the poor girl turn red.
"Ok ok can we all pair up now?" Asuka asked grumbling. "No need to act all secretive or worried anymore," She blushed as Mari wrapped her arms around Asuka's neck while humming into her hair.
"Of course queenie~" She giggled.
"Well, since all the Angels are dead and the world isn't ending, I can finally do this." Mary said, and proceeded to grab Shinji, dip him deep and kiss him. "Aishiteru yo." She murmured. The poor boy was left a stuttering, brain fried, tomato red mess.
"Misato!" Kaji yelled emerging from one of the emergency shafts. "Is everyone ok up here?"
"Yeah, yeah we're all ok now," Misato said helping him out of the shaft, and then pulling him into a kiss as well. "Now shut up and take me on a proper date, no more secrets," She ordered.
Kaji blinked as his head finally caught up with his other head. "Of course, no need to be a spy anymore," He joked.
"Well then," Ray said smiling. "What are we all going to do now?"
"I don't know about you," Misato said sighing. "-But I'm going to take a nap," She said rubbing her eyes.
…..
"Guys when I said take a nap, I meant on my own," Misato mumbled as she surveyed the children surrounding her on the giant bed in her living room made of every blanket and pillow they all owned.
"Quiet mum," Isabelle mumbled holding onto Misato's waist and using her stomach like a pillow.
"Yeah mum," Mari agreed grabbing Misato's arm.
"We're trying to sleep mutter," Asuka mumbled holding onto her other arm.
"Shush mom." Mary agreed, tangling one of her legs with Misato's and using her arms to hug Shinji close to her.
"Y-Yeah Okasan..." Shinji agreed, still a bit frazzled.
"Mère, please sleep…" Adelise chided, interlocking one of her hands with Ray's.
"I would be most wise to sleep now Mother," Ray said taking one of Misato's hands in his.
"We are all tired Mother," Rei said holding Isabelle like a body pillow. "So rest now, we will discuss things later."
Misato's face became progressively redder with each call, but she steeled herself and finally was able to shakily respond with. "Goodnight kids," As she and the children drifted off into the first calm sleep they had in a while.