At World's End
S-Michael
Chapter the Fifteenth
Many Truths Revealed, Part 3
"You know, you probably should not take the confession of a drunk at face value," Kowaru said.
"That felt…strange," Shinji said.
"Well, yeah. You had enough alcohol in you to kill a yak. Now you know what being drunk feels like without having to have destroyed your brain cells or your liver or woken up hung over the next morning," Kowaru said.
"Do I wake up hunk over the next morning?"
"What do I look like, the Ghost of Christmas Future? We can go again, but I think there is something that we ought to be looking into."
"What?" Shinji asked.
"That friend of yours that was executed for treason in that first alternate we visited might confide something to you in an alternate alternate."
"Sounds like a plan. I'm ready when you are." It took an immeasurable amount if time until—
¡FLASH!
Knock, knock, knock!
Shinji looked at the clock. It was three AM. Who could be knocking on his door at such a time? "Come in," he said groggily.
Don James entered. "Shinji, I'm glad you're here, I've got to talk to you."
"Can't this wait until day time?"
"I've been spying for SEELE."
"That's not funny, man," Shinji said, now fully awake.
"I have been, and I am going to confess to Browne and Valaskas, but I'm going to need some leverage before I do, because otherwise they might kill me."
"What are you talking about? Browne thinks of you as like a son," Shinji said.
"That won't stop that Machiavelli-wannabe from offing me if he feels he has to. And Valaskas, well, that guy is Lex Luther with hair.
"Who?"
"Right, you're not familiar with American comic books, are you? The point is, he is not exactly a good guy. Look, I need you to know something, and, if I should die, to take it to the news."
"Lets say, for an instant, I believe that any of this is true. Why the sudden change of heart?"
"I found religion. The other day, I was wandering around town, when I randomly found this book store, and in it I found a book, and I read it, more for shits and giggles than anything else, but it struck a cord with me, and I realized that I don't need to be better than everyone at everything at all times…well, alright, maybe not, but all the same, I've been spying on SEELE for the wrong reasons. It's time to get back on the winning team."
"What book?" Shinji asked.
"The Satanic Bible, by Anton LaVey. I am now a Satanist."
"Satanist, what is that, one of those Christian sects?" Shinji asked.
"Not even close."
"I'm pretty sure there's a 'Satan' somewhere in the Christian Bible," Shinji said.
"We use the name 'Satanism' in Judeo-Christian societies, as that is the name of their devil, and we want to scare off the flock. We're a religion of leaders, not followers." (Yeah, that sounds like you, thought Shinji.) "But that's beside the point. Alright, Shinji, this is the truth about HALO, the new angels, and the war with the Separatists…" and so Don James proceeded to tell Shinji all he knew.
¡FLASH!
"I've got to stop them," Shinji said. "How do I get back to the real world?"
"You can leave whenever you want," Kowaru said.
"Why didn't you say so?"
"What good would it have done to send you back not knowing the truth? Besides…I wanted to spend some time with you, one last time."
"Kowaru…"
"No, no. I'm fine. This is part of what I was designed to do. Angels do not get lonely."
"Well, you said that time doesn't exist in this place, right? So I can stay here as long as I want before returning to the instant I arrived, right?"
"You shouldn't stay too long, or risk breakdown of your AT-Field."
"We can do one more of those things, right?"
"I don't see why not. What did you have in mind?"
"Well, you seem to be experiencing these things along with me."
"Yeah."
"How are you doing that?" Shinji asked.
"We are connected," Kowaru said. "I can go where you go."
"Et vice versa?"
"What did you have in mind?" Kowaru asked.
"I want to see something from your eyes," Shinji said. "Instead of visiting an alternate me, I want to visit an alternate you."
"Okay. I'll find one in a world you'd never be able to visit otherwise."
"Show me the wonders of the multiverse," Shinji was kidding and being serious at the same time.
¡FLASH!
Tabris road the terror bird on the winding roads of the Andes, some of them so that they were actually designed for terror birds, llamas, and alpacas. They never did design a car that could take naturally to these roads, so the terror bird never lost relevance here in the cradle of civilization.
"This is fun," his companion, a girl named Tiwatt, said.
"Yeah," a boy named Haratz said. "When I'm one of these animals, I like to pretend that I am going to war against those old northern barbarians and their war mammoths, or slaughtering savages in Eurasia, Africa, or Australia."
" 'Savages?' You fucking racist!" Tiwatt said.
"Blacks and Whites are subhuman beasts of burden. Asians, barely human," Haratz said.
Lilim: are they really worth it? "I am curious as to why Asians, in your estimation, receive a higher ranking than Blacks or Whites," Tabris mentioned. There were no great civilizations in eastern Eurasia any more than there were in western Eurasia or in Africa."
"Well, Kao…"
"Isn't it obvious, Kao? They look like us," Tiwatt said.
"Not really. They've got all that ugly facial hair, just like the animals," Haratz said.
"It's not that ugly," Tiwatt protested.
"Yeah? I'd like to see you kiss a man with fur on his face," Haratz retorted.
"Oh. So your estimation of superiority is based on you being prettier than they are," Tabris said.
"No! Tell me, if they're as smart as we are, how come Whites and Blacks never built houses? How come—"
"That's a racist lie, and a dumb racist lie! Eurasia and Africa had hundreds if not thousands of complex stone-age civilizations before we conquered them, and Australia had domesticated animals, like the giant wombat. Ye gods! Why is it that people who think that one race is smarter than another are always amongst the stupidest motherfuckers on the planet?—and how did someone as dumb as you become an Eva pilot, anyway?" Tiwatt shouted.
"White people's IQs are about sixty—"
Tabris found the fact that they were having this conversation in the presence of a being who was truly superior—himself—hilarious. "They are not. East Eurasian, West Eurasian, African, Australian, Pacific, or of the 'Proper' race, the differences are all superficial. You are all lilim. Nothing more, nothing less." Unlike me; I'm both more and less.
"Whatever, you PC scum. I'd take you on any day."
Tabris smiled. "There is no way you could possibly win, without your Eva. Probably not even then," which was nothing but the literal truth.
"The fact that you would resort to violence and name-calling when you are losing an argument only proves that you are, indeed, unintelligent," Tiwatt said.
¡FLASH!
"They had Evas there, too?" Shinji asked.
Kowaru nodded. "Most worlds in which I interact with humans are ones in which some form of Second Impact happened, and most of those develop some sort of Eva program. Not all of them for motivations as nefarious as SEELE's, though."
"You called yourself Tabris there…do you call yourself Tabris?"
"Not in this world. I call myself Kowaru, because that is what you call me, dearest. Besides, I am the soul that was Adam's and became Tabris' and is now residing inside of the Ark, so 'Tabris' isn't my proper name anymore. Maybe 'Adam' isn't, either. In that case, why shouldn't I be Kowaru?"
Shinji nodded. "And so now it is time for me to leave, is it?" Kowaru nodded. "Kowaru, before I go, there is something I've always wanted to ask but was never brave enough to."
"What, Shinji?"
"You could have made yourself look like anything, right?"
"Yes."
"So, why couldn't you have made yourself into a girl?"
Kowaru laughed. "If I knew that I was going to meet you one day, I would have. Good bye, my love." He kissed him. "And, here." Something glowing red he placed inside of Shinji's chest. He should have been shocked to see this, but he wasn't. They were two ghosts in the land of the unborn. "It's my core. To protect you, should you ever need it. One more thing."
"Yeah?"
"That Browne guy seems like a clever one. Don't trust him. I know that that sounds, like, duh, right now, but there is seriously something about him. If he doesn't have some sort of psychic power, I'd be surprised."
"How do I—?"
And suddenly Shinji was in the beam of light, but at the same time, he was the beam of light. He understood all that was going on, for he was connected to all things, on a level lower than that on which the AT-Fields could divide. This beam, it was coming from the Ark, and focused by the White Seed, which was also where SEELE was. What foolish little mortals. All he had to do was fatten his tail end, and then they rejoined the All. The angel was dead, but the mass produced Evas had revived, and were preparing for a second go at Rei and Asuka. Nine of them. Shinji pointed with nine fingers, and nine beams impaled them, and fried them. They, also, rejoined the All, not that they had been much separated in the first place. Shinji had to extract himself from the beam. If he was connected like this for much longer, his AT-Field would break down, and he would rejoin the All himself. At the height that his body was, he might die on impact with the water, but that was the worst-case scenario, and besides, death is just rejoining the All, which was what he was faced with, anyway. Therefore, the logical thing to do would be to shut the beam down.
Then the beam was shut down, and Shinji was in his own head, again, and he suddenly remembered things like fear, pain, and mortality…especially fear. He screamed as he fell, and then he hit the water and knew no more.
-
Shinji came to in a hospital room. "Hey, Misato, Shinji's awake," Asuka said. Shinji looked at her, Misato (who was asleep in a chair), and Rei.
"Hi, Shinji," Rei said.
"How long have I been out?" Shinji asked.
"One week," Rei said.
Misato came to. "Oh, Shinji, you're awake!" She kissed him…only then realizing that they had company. She backed away from Shinji's bed, slowly.
"I see," Rei said.
"Rei…" Misato started.
"…you can't tell anyone," Shinji finished.
"I take it, then, that Misato is this girlfriend of yours I've heard about?" Rei asked. There was something akin to a rising storm behind the words. A quiet rage. "Actually, it is not too shocking. You were buying a lot of condoms, so it had to have been someone who we're around a lot, and we've been traveling all over the planet lately, and so there weren't too many people it could have been. At first, I thought it was Asuka, and that you two were just keeping it secret for some reason, but then she started dating Kensuke. With those two out of the picture, every other candidate both female and male was an adult, which made the reason for secrecy clear. Misato and Dr. Akagi were the strongest candidates."
"I'm sorry we didn't tell you, Rei, but…well, it was our secret. Between the two of us," Shinj said.
"But you told Asuka. Otherwise, she'd be yelling up a storm and being generally violent right now," Rei pointed out.
"Gee, thanks," Asuka said. "And they didn't tell me. I caught them going at it. I do live with them, after all. Exactly how long do you think they would be able to keep it from me?"
"I see."
"What are you going to do, Rei?" Misato asked.
"Are you alright, Rei?" Shinji asked.
"What do you care? I am just a robot, aren't I? A half-angel clone," Rei said. "Why wouldn't I be alright? It's not as if I have feelings. I'm just Wonder Girl. A machine built to fight angels, no different from the Eva I pilot. A freakish creation of Gendo Ikari."
"No, Rei. You're not. You're my blood. You're my sister. The favored child of our father, and, if I have resented you for it, I am sorry. But we are family."
"Family…" Rei said shakily. A single tear ran down her cheek. Then a second one. Then she ran to Shinji and was crying into his chest, as he patted her hair, and made comforting noises. He really had no idea what she had gone through, but to go through it alone, so terribly alone…that, he understood. He understood being alone. Being emotionally distant. He had always been too busy with his own hang ups to help her, and she had been too busy with hers to help him. She must have been hurt, even more than he was, when his father died. A lot more than he was. Shinji had been jealous of her, because his father loved her more than he loved him, that she had had him as a rock to stabilize her in this world…but then he died, didn't he? To be suddenly anchorless…as Shinji had been when Kowaru died. As he had when his mother died. As he would be again if anything were to happen to Misato. "Hold me, Brother; I need to be held." And that, again, Shinji understood. It was awkward, to hold someone who was standing while you were laying down, but he held her as she cried out a short lifetime's worth of sorrow and pain.
Browne walked in, saw what was going on, and sat in a chair in the corner, waiting. It was kind of funny, as Shinji had been preparing in the back of his head for a confrontation of good guys and bad guys like in the movies or anime, but in what movie had the bad guy ever seen that the good guy was busy and decided to wait? He was very careful, though to keep the thought from the surface of his mind. Unfortunately, that was not the medium Browne was able to read, and he had noticed a slight bristling in Shinji when he had walked into the room. Oh? What is this about?
"Are you alright, Rei?" Shinji asked.
"I'm fine…now," Rei said. She smiled. "Thank you, Shinji."
"Hey, Shinji glad you're awake," Browne said. "Guess what? You're retired. The Sahaquiel II is up and operational, and it killed its first angel three days ago—"
"So there weren't any problems with its weapons system?" Shinji saw Browne physically flinch when he suggested this. He had thought that that was a bit fishy, how that kept happening in the other worlds.
"Uh…no. Anyway, it can do this much quicker and more efficiently than you can, and with much less threat to human life, as it doesn't need a nearby city to power it nor pilots. Now that you have rejoined the world of the living, you can finally formally receive these," Browne held out some medals that Shinji recognized.
"So the PM of Earth is giving us medals," Shinji commented.
"Alright, how could you have possibly known that?" Browne demanded. "You've been in a coma for a week."
"I was inside the Ark of the Covenant. It showed me…many things," Shinji said vaguely.
"What sort of things?" Browne asked.
"All sorts of things," Shinji said. "Why don't you tell us all about Operation Advocate?"
Browne knew that Shinji had the upper hand, having come into an unknown amount of information quite suddenly. He was certainly bluffing or preparing to bluff, but without knowing the nature of what Shinji had over him, there was no way of telling if he would recognize the bluff when he saw it. He had to go on the offensive. "Oh, really? Well, I know a little something about you…you and Misato, that is." (He knew something was wrong when Shinji did not react to this statement.) "Yeah, I know. I've known—"
"—ever since you first saw us," Shinji finished for him. "Yeah, I know you know. Something else I learned in the Ark. You're really good at what you do, aren't you?"
Browne studied him. Did he know what Browne could do? No, he decided. That was just an intentionally vague statement that could mean many things. It was intended to frighten Browne, make him think Shinji knew more than he did. And realizing that gave Browne confidence. It meant Shinji wasn't omniscient, after all. "Fine, you want to know the truth about the last few months?" he asked indignantly. "Here's the truth:
"Second Impact didn't just halve our population, it halved our resources. A great deal of what was one the best farmland in the world is now under the sea. Ninety percent of the world's natural species went extinct. The world had been struggling at the brink of collapse for fifteen years! Fifteen years, Shinji! Oil was being hoarded by dictators in the Middle East, and dictators in Africa would rather use their by-today's-standards premium farmland to grow drugs than crops to feed the rest of the world with. We were at the world's end, Shinji, and then we were pulled back from it. Because of our plans, because of this regrettably necessary war, and because of you, we were able to unify the planet! All human ingenuity and resources will from now on be channeled into the survival and advancement of the human race!"
"With you and your cronies at the helm," Shinji commented.
"And why not? Someone has to direct the resources to make sure that they are not squandered. Someone has to make sure that the momentum of humanity is channeled in the right direction. Why not the people who made it possible in the first place."
"What are you guys talking about?" Asuka demanded.
"The angels we've been fighting after Kowaru died were fakes, created by these people so that they could start a war and otherwise advance their plots," Shinji said.
"You fucking bastard," Asuka said.
"Oh, rreeeaalllyy? A bastard, am I?" Browne asked rhetorically. "You have been cheering on our goals every step of the way—defeating the Separatists and other threats, unification, et all. Don't you think the ends justify the means, Asuka? Don't you?" He surveyed the room. You didn't have to have any special skill to read the hatred emanating towards him like solar radiation in this room. "Alright, fine. You don't approve of my methods. But now the deed is done. And the government of the world will be a democracy, once we have guided society on its proper course for a while.
"Think for a while before doing anything to stop us. You could go to the media, I suppose, but do you know what will happen then? What will happen when a populace that was recently terrorized by the thought that SEELE could have killed every last damn one of them finds out that all the world events of the last few months were plotted? They will go mad, and everything we have lost will be for nothing, for everything we had accomplished will have been for nothing. Humanity itself will fall.
"Do you really care how the world is run, Shinji, as long as you can live in peace in it? I don't think so, and besides, it's better than the alternative. So, are you willing to throw civilization to the wolves because you're mad at me?" Browne stared Shinji in the eyes. Neither of them blinked. Then Shinji lowered his eyes. "That's what I thought. You receive your medals tomorrow. Try not to look like someone spat in your milk," Browne said, and he turned on his heal and made what he hoped was a dramatic exit.