Homecoming
A Neon Genesis Evangelion story by Andrew J. Talon
Disclaimer: Gainax owns it, I don't. I'm not making any money off this story either.
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Evolution. That ticking time bomb of life. If you don't adapt quickly enough, or if you adapt too quickly and the changes snap back too soon, you're dead. Gone. Extinct. I must admit, I'd always been fascinated with how it worked. Especially among humans.
Most of your evolution was behavioral, mind you, unlike my brothers and sisters. They could change their shapes, increase their power sources, even become a bit smarter if they put their minds to it. Heheh.
But you... You could do so much more. You could reproduce, you could age, you could die.
Death is something my kind had never really experienced. The end of existence, to simply not be is entirely foreign to the Angel. They are eternal, as I am eternal. You age and grow and wither and eventually die, and for these reasons you adapt, evolve, change and grow.
When you are weak, you become stronger. When you are ignorant, you become smarter. When you are alone, you find ways to build communities. You work, investigate, study, analyze... All to find ways to defeat your weaknesses. Even the passage of time is something you humans seek to defeat, whether by extending your lifespans or by leaving a legacy, defiantly crying out to the universe that you existed, that you mattered.
It is for this reason I have always preferred humans, and the various human-like lifeforms all over the universe over the Angels and their cousins. Spread out across the worlds, Lilliths and Adams landed on worlds and gave birth to intelligent life, and while there are differences, the Children of Lillith always held one thing in common-Their desire to live, to leave their mark, to learn and discover new things about themselves and the universe around them. The Angels... Always knew so much, saw so much, and lived for so long that they never desired to change. Why should they? Their built-in advantages allowed them to conquer almost anything in their paths with ease. They roamed their worlds with barely a care, never wanting to grow or change. They saw no need.
... No, it's not just them though. Oh no. I may still resent God but there is no denying that when it comes to Creation, He is the master.
I have stood on planets where that life was only just emerging from primordial ooze, taking it's first steps and I rejoiced at what might be there millions of years from now. I have stood in the ruins of worlds utterly destroyed and all life reduced to atomic dust, and wept at the destruction. I have met beings without concept of linear time and beings who have never felt hatred or rage, love or happiness. At the same time beings who love in ways you cannot fathom and hate in ways that would set this globe afire. Not all Children of Lillith, not all Children of Adam, yet still... There was connection. Life grants that connection, that commonality.
It is thanks to the human part of me that I could appreciate all this, that I went out among the stars and saw the wonders and possibilities. And even I have not seen even a fraction of what the Universe has to offer.
So, I suppose I am playing Prometheus. I bring down a bit of flame, a bit of knowledge from the stars to light up a dark world. A world being driven into it's own destruction by simple selfish ignorance. Heheh... The irony is simply incredible.
What do I mean by that? ... Oh. Of course. You don't know of Instrumentality.
What is it? I'm not sure you should know... Not yet. I have trouble believing it myself, even knowing what these men who would be Gods are planning.
... Well, all right. If you really want to know...
Let me tell you a story. Another story. There were men, women, people who tired of being alone, of being separated, of being depressed, of war, of misunderstanding. They saw all of humanity's darkness, or at least presumed to see all of it, and decided that there was only one way to end all that-Make sure all people came together. Drop every barrier between people and bring them together. End the loneliness, the suffering, the change.
... Yes, all of these people had suffered. But worse than that, they saw their suffering as a reason to give up life. To move on. They used science and meta-science to justify what they "knew"-That humanity had no where else to go. No time left. They saw only a dark future for their species, an ember that would burn itself out.
So, like any idealists, they put together a plan. A long, complex plan that would require pushing themselves to their limits to enact. After all... They were ending hunger, pain, loneliness, misery, suffering, even death. They wanted humans to at last be united, perfect, one.
... What's the problem with that, you ask? Well, nothing really. Except that they refused to give humans a choice. They decided they knew what was best for all humans, that they had to stop living as individuals, because as far as they were concerned that only brought misery and sorrow. They'd all be happy together, without any individuality. They'd be benevolent Gods and save people from themselves, by making it so that they were no longer themselves. No longer people.
In essence, they wanted to save humanity by killing everything that makes them human.
If their plan was fulfilled, sure, it might be some sort of paradise, but then humanity just... Stops. Ends, right here. It's only legacy a giant ocean of goo, on a dead planet, orbiting a star that will eventually burn out anyway.
Everything you've done will have been for nothing, lost in the ambitions of a group of idealists. And that's all it would ever amount to.
... No, that doesn't sound good, does it? You wouldn't want to be a puddle of goo.
... Why? Well, the sorrow, the pain, all of that, but personally? I think the biggest reason is that they never just stopped, and looked up at the stars. That they just couldn't let go of their own pain and see all the possibilities. Not just the possibilities of space, but the possibilities of existence itself.
That, and the silly bastards didn't have a plan for what might happen if the Earth were suddenly destroyed or eventually consumed by the Sun turning into a red giant.
Bloody morons. They need a reality check, a big one.
... Yes... That's why I'm here.
Can you help? Of course you can, child. You can help by making a choice: Namely... What do you want?
.... No, no, don't just blindly follow me. Don't just do it because I said you should. Figure it out on your own. Think hard about your life, about all the sorrows and the joys and everything, and decide for yourself, based on that, what choice you want to make for the future.
And now... I must be going.
... Will we meet again? Well... Why not? Who knows what the future holds?
Just... Do me a favor. Don't become a fan of the Rolling Stones. I need no sympathy.
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