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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The sun dawned across the vast desert, painting the sands in pink, orange and purple. A massive city stood, shadows slowly giving way to the warm, polished stones that made up the buildings and walls. In the center was a single grand tower, stretching up to the heavens even higher than mere mortar and stone could ever hope to reach.
The top of the tower had been shattered by massive force, it's roof gone, it's walls collapsed, numerous pieces of it's superstructure blown off. Amidst the destruction, slowly revealed by the rising sun, humanoid figures lay groaning. Idols cast to the ground, destroyed. Banners and flags all in tatters, among the wounded, the defeated.
On the steps of the remains of a throne, a single man sat. His downed foes all carried weapons of some sort-Spears, swords, knives-all fashioned in ways no furnace could forge. The man carried nothing.
The man stood up, the sun casting light upon one form in particular. He groaned quietly, managing to look up. The man walked over, and gazed down. His foe shook his head slowly.
"Form lock... Form lock..."
"Yes," the man spoke quietly. "You're all trapped. Your powers locked away."
"So... Are yours," wheezed his foe. "The Morningstar... Never to burn again. Never to touch the sky..."
The man nodded slowly. "You're right... I paid the price. Can't have it both ways... Life or Knowledge. Just have the barest bit of Father to sustain me forever, a bit of flexibility with the AT Field... But otherwise, I'm just another Lillim." The man smiled grimly down.
"Though that was all I needed to defeat you."
"You would allow the world to go on, without a guiding light?!" His foe hissed. "We brought a city to them! A paradise-!"
"At the cost of their souls! Of their freedom!" The Morningstar retorted.
"And what good has it done them? You condemn them to scrabbling in the mud for eternity!"
"No, I do not," the Morningstar replied coldly. "I'm just giving them the chance to build what they want. The knowledge is out there... It will not go to waste." He turned to leave, steps echoing in the ruins of the tower. His foe wheezed.
"Why? Why did you...? You could have been our king, Lucifer... You were our example to follow! New Heaven! New Earth! All under us! Under YOU!"
The man was silent for a time, and then quietly replied:
"Really? You seemed to have missed a few things then..."
His foe's screams of rage followed him down the tower steps.
"LUCIFERRRR! LUCIFFERRRRR!"
- - - - - - - - -
"Doctor? Doctor...?"
"Hmph? What?"
Doctor awoke, blinking his eyes blearily. He then stretched his arms over his head and yawned, smacking his lips. He looked over at Shinji, sitting in the train seat next to his. The teenager pointed out the window.
"We're here."
The Doctor blinked and followed Shinji's finger, looking out at the train station. He then stood up and stretched again.
"Hnnngh! Well then... Allons-y!"
"Allons-what?" Shinji asked, confused. The Doctor grinned.
"'Let's go' in French. Lovely language, French. Sounds like you're wiping your nose with silk... or maybe the other end, not quite sure," Doctor mused. Shinji, by now very used to the Doctor's rambling, retrieved his backpack and nudged his friend. The Doctor stepped into the aisle and walked forward, closely followed by Shinji.
Outside, as the train pulled away, Shinji and the Doctor looked around the city of Tokyo-3, as far as they could. It looked altogether desolate, Shinji thought.
"Hmmm..." The Doctor rubbed his chin thoughtfully, looking out at the nearby mountains. "Well... She was supposed to be here to pick us up, wasn't she?"
"I think so..."
"Better check the photo again."
Shinji shook his head with a sigh, and pulled the photo out again, looking it over. The Doctor hummed appreciatively, which Shinji tried to ignore. Sure, she was a good looking woman, but perving over her picture seemed inappropriate.
Shinji turned it over, and re-read the note the Captain had left. "She said she'd be here by 3..."
"Probably a bit of a free spirit," the Doctor mused. He nodded and patted Shinji on the shoulder. "She'd be good for you!"
"Oh c'mon, what'd she want to do with me?" Shinji blinked, then quickly turned to the Doctor.
"Don't say it!"
"Awww..." The Doctor hummed thoughtfully. "Of course... You could just say the Devil made you do it."
"That joke was old when I turned 10," Shinji said reproachfully. Doctor shrugged.
"That joke was old when the last Ice Age was going strong. It's a classic."
"It's a relic."
"So am I!"
"What's that supposed to prove?"
"... Um..."
The two were interrupted by a series of loud booms in the direction of the mountains. Both turned, an a feeling of uneasiness filled the air.
"That doesn't sound like an airplane," Shinji murmured. He felt... Something tug on him, and he turned, looking into the distance. He spied a girl with blue hair and red eyes, staring back at him. He blinked.
"Huh?"
The Doctor turned at Shinji's comment, but saw nothing. He frowned.
"Hmmm..."
An even louder series of booms brought both their attentions back on the mountain pass, as several UN attack hovercraft flew overhead. Out of the mountain pass emerged a gigantic monster, bizarrely formed with long arms and a bird-skull-like face on the front.
Both Doctor and Shinji stared at this creature, blinking in unison.
"... What the hell is that?"
"That?" Doctor scratched his head. "Hmmm... Looks familiar... Kind of hard to place it."
"It's headed for us," Shinji warned.
"Well, damnit, if fewer Angels favored those bloody skull mask things this would be a whole lot easier!"
- - - - - - - - - -
Captain Misato Katsuragi could be on time. She may have been a slob but she was punctual to those things that mattered.
Usually. Mostly.
Right now she was seriously considering giving up drinking for at least a week due to this debacle-Racing along the streets in her Blue Renault towards the train station even while the UN military forces pounded on the oncoming Angel. They weren't doing a particularly good job of it either, considering the Angel was wandering directly towards her destination.
She skidded around the corner and gunned the engine hard, spotting what looked like her passenger and an old man in a trench coat standing in front of the oncoming Angel. The boy was tugging on the old man's arm, trying to get him to move. Misato slammed on the brakes and came to a screeching halt in front of them, throwing open the door to the Renault in one smooth motion.
"GET IN!" She shouted. The old man (who didn't look quite so old up close) promptly grabbed the boy by the collar and back of his belt and threw him into the car over Misato, before throwing open the back door and jumping in himself.
"DRIVE!" They both shouted, and Misato needed no further encouragement, gunning the engine and barely getting out of the way of a crashing UN VTOL. She turned the corner again and headed north-west along a valley, the Angel changing direction to go the same way.
"Well... That was a bit exciting now wasn't it?" The older man said, in ever-so-slightly accented Japanese. The boy groaned and sat up in the passenger seat.
"A bit?! Are you kidding?!" Shinji demanded, turning to glare at his companion. The older man grinned and shrugged.
"Considering my age, you should know that very little surprises me anymore once I've gotten a good look at it."
"Uhhh..." Misato blinked, then shook her head. "Hi, I'm Captain Katsuragi. Sorry I'm late... You must be Shinji, right?"
"Yeah... Thanks for picking us up," Shinji said with a grateful smile. Misato glanced at the rear-view mirror at her second passenger.
"And you would be...?"
"Oh, I'm Doctor," he replied with a big smile. Misato blinked.
"Doctor? Doctor What?"
"Who," Shinji corrected.
"Huh?"
"No, no, it's not a Doctor What or Who, just Doctor," Doctor informed the Captain. Misato blinked.
"Doctor?! That's it?"
"His father had high hopes for him," Shinji said dryly.
"That he did! So, I suppose you could call me Doctor Doctor if you were so inclined, but I just prefer 'Doctor'."
"And... Why are you here?" Misato asked.
"I wanted him to come with me," Shinji said. "He's my best friend."
"Hope you don't mind, I won't be any trouble at all," Doctor beamed. Misato blinked again.
"... Don't you... Have any questions about the Angel?"
"Angel?" Shinji asked. "You mean that giant monster?"
"Honestly, no wheels of fire, no multiple faces, not even wings, and you call it a bloody Angel," the Doctor tsked. "Who's in charge of your 'Naming Giant Monsters' department at NERV? I'd like to have a word!"
"Wait, what?" Misato asked, taking her eyes off the road long enough to look at Shinji. The boy shrugged.
"The envelopes said they were from NERV, NERV is in this city, there's a giant monster attacking the day I show up, you've got a military rank, and you know what the thing is called. Doesn't take too much thought to figure out you're part of things regarding it."
"Smart lad, he figured it all out on his own," Doctor said with genuine pride. Misato nodded slowly.
"Well, I guess that does make things a bit simp-" She looked out towards the valley and the monster, and saw that all but one of the planes attacking the Angel were scattering. "Oh no! They're using an N2 mine!" She slammed on the brakes and covered Shinji with her body. "GET DOWN!"
Doctor promptly ducked down himself, as the bomb went off and the resulting shockwave blew the Blue Renault rolling down the hill, windows breaking and body being dented, smashed and otherwise thoroughly violated.
When it was over, three pairs of eyes looked out of the car at the cloud of smoke and debris surrounding the Angel.
"Huh... 15 kilotons, if I'm not mistaken," the Doctor said. He whistled. "Not bad." He looked over at Misato and Shinji, who were clinging tightly to one another, and grinned.
"Way to go, Shinji! Take it slow with him, Captain, he's a bit new at such things!"
"Wha-H-Hey! What kind of woman do you think I am?!" Misato growled, pushing a blushing, gasping Shinji away from her breasts. The boy was able to notice a bit of a blush on the Captain's face though, which made him reconsider shouting at the Doctor.
For a few moments, anyway.
"Um... We uh... Have a slight problem," Shinji pointed out, trying to distract himself from how nice Misato had felt. He pointed up at the Renault. In response, Misato groaned.
"Ohhh!"
"The Renault's a classic, too," the Doctor mused.
"C'mon, help me flip it over!" Misato ordered. With a bit of effort, the trio managed to get the Renault back upright. At the severe damage to the car's engine, Misato groaned again.
"Great... C'mon, we need to find some batteries and-" Misato began, but Shinji was already heading for a nearby empty shop and the Doctor was already examining the engine.
"I'm going to need at least six batteries and a whole lot of duct tape, Shinji," he replied, beginning work on the engine.
"Right, need anything else?" Shinji called back. The Doctor shrugged.
"How about a good lager, if there's anything European?"
"Oh no, I'm not hauling you around drunk again," Shinji declared, checking the door of the shop. He shook his head. "Hey, Misato, got a tire iron?" He noticed a stray tire laying on the street and brightened. "Oh, nevermind!" He picked it up, and threw it through the window. Misato blinked as Shinji looked back at her.
"You want anything, Misato?" He smiled. "I mean... NERV can reimburse them for whatever we take, right?"
"Right!" Misato grinned, hopping over the window sill and heading for the top shelf liquor. "I'll be riiight back..."
"Oh what, she can have booze but I can't?" The Doctor complained after Shinji and Misato came back, shopping cart filled with batteries, liquor, and a few other miscellaneous items tossed in for good measure. Misato grinned and rubbed Shinji's head.
"He's just a natural gentleman! How's the car?"
"Ready to go, just need the batteries," the Doctor replied. Misato beamed at Shinji, and got into the car. The Doctor rolled his eyes and worked with Shinji, taping the batteries onto the mishmash of the engine.
"And you probably wouldn't mind carrying her back home," the Doctor mumbled. Shinji elbowed him as soon as they were done, and slid into the front seat. The Doctor grinned and with a shake of his head, jumped into the backseat. The car gave an unhealthy-sounding gurgle, before starting again.
"All right! Quite the Doctor, aren't you?"
"Oh, I dabble here and there," he said modestly. Shinji rolled his eyes, and glanced at the rearview mirror.
"Uh... Misato..."
She looked as well, and cursed. "The Angel is moving again." She revved the engine and took off.
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TBC! Please review!