finally, this's the perfect oppertunity to rewrite this mess of a beginning chapter. A lot of lore and stuffs, or something similar I guess. Anyways, enjoy this new Chapter 0 of this fanfiction, Millions Of Ways to Fix The Future, And A New Path Opened!
A small introduction to the fanfiction(for the newcomers): This fanfiction was heavily inspired by Neon Genesis Evangelion ANIMA, a bunch of time loop NGE fanfictions and NGE fanfics in general, Iron Maiden, Shinji Ikari Raising Project(manga), etc etc. It can get pretty confusing sometimes reading this mess of a fanfiction, but I can assure you that most of the things will get explained in later chapters. Incidentally, this fanfiction takes place during the original Third Impact, a bit mixed between the anime and manga.
Alright, let's start the experi- I mean, chapter. Totally not a Kamen Rider reference, I swear.
As always, I do not own Neon Genesis Evangelion, nor Rebuild Of Evangelion, nor a bunch of extracanonical Evangelion stuff(mainly ANIMA and Iron Maiden). Have a nice time reading, thank you!
A music recommendation that probably will disappear in the next few chapters: Kamen Rider 555 OST - m.c.A-T - The people with no name.
Chapter 0.0: Another Option.
A/N: In a world without black and white, what will a troubled teenager do?
- Part 1: Reluctance. -
Sitting in a chair, a bruised boy peered into the train's window, watching the white space. The mentioned void slowly cracked open, revealing the empty black space behind its illusionary facade.
Third Impact was occuring. Millions, billions of lives were being taken away right in front of his eyes. Countless green light crosses emerged from the ground, painted the Earth in a blood red color, destroying the already broken world that suffered from the greed of man.
And it was his fault.
The world was falling apart in front of him. Standing in front of him was the Second Angel, Rei Ayanami/Lilith.
"Will you destroy the world... Or become one with us?" A feminine voice echoed in the empty space, reaching his ears.
He didn't bother to answer the question as his vision began to see himself in two different places, two realities happening at the same time. He saw a version of himself sitting inside a train.
The train continued its journey. Its only passenger, namely Shinji Ikari, was sitting impatiently inside the train.
Unlike the last time, he was the only one present. There was no voice questioning him about his existence, no voice talking about the Shinji in other people's minds. The sound of the train moving forward resounded in the empty white world, regardless of the events that were occuring behind it.
Something surged in his chest. An unfamiliar sensation. He looked around. No one was there.
Third Impact, a gigantic explosion destroyed the very Earth, everyone... gone, reduced to a puddle of orange goo. Oh, and his mother reappeared and took the robot away, saying something about humanity's testament and ran away with the red gigantic fork.
In Shinji Ikari's fragile mind, something had snapped. Everything betrayed him. That's right, the world laughed at him about how miserable he was. Even his own father used him like a pawn. His own biological father and mother betrayed him, their son, who did absolutely nothing to deserve this. He was a stupid little boy, caught up in this intangible mess of fate, like a joke.
Shinji was furious at everything. Every cell in his body screamed revenge, demanding absolute genocide.
A new sensation surged in his chest.
Rage.
The boy stood up and began breaking everything inside with his bare hands. The sitting seats were violently ripped apart like paper and thrown away at the windows, causing them to break and spray glass shards everywhere, some even managed to land on his hands. Blood was dripping on the floor as the boy kneeled down, hyperventilating like a drowned person.
The train stopped abruptly, but it continued moving forward again, despite the commotion that was present just now.
"Shut up! I don't want to hear anything from you!" He bit his tongue, causing hot blood to come out. Rei Ayanami/Lilith didn't say a thing. They just stood there in the white void, staring at the fractured shell of a person releasing their final breaths. "Leave me alone, dammit!"
They were confused at this sudden development.
"I'm sick of this. Sick of being a damn fiddle for people to play with. Sick of people using me. I never asked for this. Is this really my fate? To be used like a pawn? No one has ever saw me as me. Myself! It always was 'The Incredible Shinji', 'Pilot Of Unit 01', hell, even 'Yui's sacrifice' by my own father. I'm sick of you people. I'M SICK OF YOU!"
The boy was standing there, looking at the gigantic Lilith floating on the sky through a broken window. The train slightly slowed down.
He grabbed her throat with his bruised hands. Said Ayanami did nothing to break free of his grasp. "Tell me, Ayanami. Why am I always responsible for this?"
"Just who do you think you are!?" The grip tightened. He didn't even bother to notice the fact that he was strangling a naked girl. "Determine the fate of the world as if you were a god. Wait, oh yeah, you ARE a god. Happy? Is this what you want!? Becoming a god, just like those stupid lunatics who destroyed this world for their stupid goals?! Just because you're an Angel you think all of us are beneath you!? You think you have the power over my life?!"
All he could feel was pure rage.
The train jerked back violently, as the space around it was contorted and stretched beyond human's perception. The two realities collided, merging the bruised boy and the naked boy into one.
"..."
The blunette kept silent, unsure of what to say.
"I... I don't want to think anymore. There's too much blood on my hands. I killed Touji. Killed a lot of people. Leaving Asuka in a coma. Letting people kill my friends, NERV, and Misato. Just why...?" He angrily shouted. "WHY DID YOU PICK ME?! COULDN'T YOU JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!?"
"Will you destroy this world... or become one with us?" She simply repeated her previous question.
*SMACK*
She didn't expect a punch to the face flying towards her.
Slamming the blunette to the white ground, Shinji Ikari began his rampage. Punchs, kicks were sent at the virtually-invincible Angel, which were proven ineffective instantly. However, the young Ikari ignored the pain and continued beating Ayanami with his bare hands, his blood spraying everywhere like fireworks after each move.
"Why am I responsible for this?! All I wanted is just a peaceful, quiet life! But no, I have to destroy the world! The moment I decided to pilot that damn monster to save you, Ayanami, my life had already doomed to this. This, this stupid, horrible fate! I could just walked away, but I couldn't. I longed for affection, but where did that bring me to?! Here, dammit. And now I'm suddenly responsible for all of this?!"
With each punch, his vision began to fade. With each kick, Shinji's willpower was being chipped away slowly. With each limb contacting with the Angel's body, he felt the memories of his friends being killed over and over again.
It hurt.
And it's his fault for being weak.
There was no one left anymore. Shinji Ikari found himself lying on the red beach, staring at the gigantic corpse of Rei Ayanami slowly sinking down in the red ocean.
"What happened?"
His memories were hazy. He was doing something... then he was teleported here. What was he doing again?
"You refused to make your decision. As a result, She temporarily halted the Instrumentality's process to wait for your response."
"What?"
Something was talking to him. Shinji looked around and found a human-sized black slihoutte of a Evangelion standing under the red moonlight, its hands were holding two long spears. It stood there like a statue, without any sign of life in it. However, the voice inside the slihoutte continued to speak, despite its mouth not even moving once.
"Rest assured, I won't force you to go back to Lilith-02. I'm just here to ask you something."
"Ask me something?" He wondered. What does this thing want from him?
"What do you want to know?" His voice was hoarse, mainly due to thirst taking over his throat.
There was a long pause before the Evangelion started speaking again.
"Will you give me your everything to restore this factured, damned world?"
He widened his eyes at the slihoutte's words.
Trying to open his mouth to utter a instant 'yes', Shinji found himself breathless at his excitement. A way to escape this hell and revert everything back to normal.
'A world without the Evangelions, the Angels, and NERV. Everyone will be happy in a world without them.'
Shinji was exhausted. Tired of everything he was carrying on his shoulders.
'There's already no hope for me in the first place. I tried everything to protect the people I loved, but I was afraid of being hurt by them. Perhaps this is the best way. Maybe I really was the cause of the problem. Maybe I shouldn't have existed at all. If things had turned out differently, surely things would have been better now.'
He nodded wearily. His head was going up and down relentlessly, trying its best to let the Evangelion see his answer.
"Do...as you wish." He muttered weakly, his voice was shaken. Despite everything, he was still a human. He was scared of death, just like everyone else. But his death will not be in vain. "Please... I beg you, please save everyone. I've failed them... but I don't want to be useless anymore! I need them to be alive and happy! They suffered enough because of me, because I wasn't strong enough... so please!"
'Perhaps... this is the way. They would be happier without... me. I'm sorry, everyone.'
'She was right. I really am hopeless. But atleast they would be able to continue their lives again. In a brighter world, in a future where they could be honest with their feelings. A future where they will be happy.'
Shinji had observed the consciousness of billions of people when he connected to Lilith. He has seen all the joys, the sorrows, and the ugliness of mankind. However, he still has hope. He believed that they could change for the better if they wanted to. He felt the suffering of people crawling on his back, he saw the pain of the people he loved... He wanted people to be happy.
Shinji gasped at his realization. He finally understood what he really wanted. He remembered the first time when he helped his teacher with his chores, and he smiled back to him. He wanted to make people happy, so that he could be happy as well. But one day, he got scolded, and he misunderstood the gesture. As a result, Shinji began to distance himself from the others. He was afraid of getting hurt again, but he was also afraid of being alone.
Now that he thought about it, he was stupid as hell.
"You will be gone... forever. Would you want that to happen?" The foreign voice said monotonously. "No turning back. Death is just death. No afterlife, no reincarnation, nothing. Will you still continue to accept the offer?"
'I deserved this.'
He nodded again, accepting the deal. The black Evangelion wasted no time as it lunged forward with its spear, stabbing it through the bruised Lilim's chest. The boy didn't even feel a thing, as he had already fallen unconscious. The Evangelion carried him gently on its hands, its fingers caressing the dead body.
"You made a very wise decision. From now on, you are practically none-existent. Your life, your memories, everything about you have been taken away from you." The voice whispered to his ear. "Thank you, Shinji Ikari. Your sacrifice will not be in vain. This world shall be cleansed, and reborn once again."
"I promise to you, Shinji Ikari, I will fulfill your wish. Enjoy your last moment, Trigger Of Instrumentality."
The last thing he saw was the slihoutte's uncannily warm smile. A 100% Evangelion-like smile, just like the first time he saw Unit 01's real face. Somehow, he found comfort in the stranger's words. Gradually losing his sense of self, Shinji- the boy closed his eyes, a small smile of relief escaped from his lips.
The body started to crack unnaturally like fragile glass. Without hesistation, the black Eva opened its mouth and devoured the boy. Wiping its mouth, the Evangelion found a tear on its hand.
It's the final stage. Only one will prevail.
At the same time, the gigantic version of Lilith opened its eyes.
- Part 2: The One In Everyone's Minds. -
"Dodge this, stupid Engel!"
"Congratulations, Asuka-chan! You defeated the final Angel on your own!"
"Ha ha! That's right, I'm the best pilot! Don't worry, Mom, everyone! I am the strongest!"
Her life was perfect. Asuka exhausted laughed in excitement, her hand holding the Spear Of Longinus which was painted in the Angel's blood. Her Unit 02, the blazing Production Type Evangelion cloaked in tattered armor parts, roared triumphantly to answer her feelings.
After several months of fighting Angels, this war between humans and Angels, a war to decide who will be the last one standing... has finally come to an end.
And all was right in the world.
The year was 2018, two years after the humanity's victory against the eldritch beasts known as Angels. Today is another great day for her, Asuka Langley Soryu, who is now a high school student(which was unnecessary, but she wanted to have a normal school life like everyone else). Fresh air, breezy winds caressed her hair, as she walked to her school. She skipped on the road, humming happily to herself.
Her life was perfect. After the Angel War, NERV worked hard with the assistance from Kaji and the government to fully destroy SEELE, a organization that worked together to destroy the world and become a god. She played a big role in the final battle, saving the world once again. NERV has disbanded, sending its employees to work with the new United Nations, which was previously used by SEELE(but they died, so yay?), mainly in medical fields and such. Her mother, Dr. Soryu was successfully freed from Unit 02, and the two have lived happily together in Tokyo-3 ever since. Misato have reunited with Kaji, and they married eachother(happy ending she guessed?). Gendo was arrested, Rei Ayanami was saved from the wretched man (also by her, using a red crowbar-like armor part of Unit 02 she had in her pocket to bonk the omnicidal Commander). Dr. Akagi and the rest of the crew were saved, mainly due to their alliance with JSSDF. Life has been peaceful for her since NERV had disbanded. All of the former pilots continued studying, and the three eventually made it to high school together.
Today was her birthday, which means the class will prepare something special for her! After all, she was the great Asuka Langley Soryu, the one who has saved the world TWICE! She can't wait to come to class and be surprised with her surprise birthday party, prepared by her friends!
Although, it's kinda weird. She's feeling like something was missing. Rubbing her chin, she wondered. It was like a part of her life disappeared, gone forever, but she couldn't figure out what it was. Eh, might be something unimportant. Shrugging the uneasy feeling off her mind, she continued walking to school.
Burp! Oops, that was unladylike for her, he he. Asuka used her hands to cover her mouth, blushing as her friends laughed maniacally at this cute moment of her. Hikari playfully shoved her back, causing the redhead to shriek surprisedly. They both laughed afterwards, their hands still holding the plate of eaten birthday cakes.
Asuka was happy that no one forgot her birthday. Everyone is here, talking and laughing together. The two Stooges were as rowdy as ever, babbling about how she behaved in middle school to her newer friends, describing her as the infamous Red Devil! Asuka sneaked up to them and gave them a blow to the head, causing the two idiots' heads to appear two bulges. Hikari sighed, lamenting one thing that never changed.
It was a great day for her. Still, something felt off.
"Hey, Hikari. Did you make sure that everyone was here? I think someone is missing."
"No, why did you ask that?"
Oh, so it was just her. Silly little her, must have been influenced by Baka Shinji's stupidity-
...Who's Baka Shinji?
"Asuka, is everything all right?" She asked, concerned at her friend's behavior. The redhead stared out of the class's window, much to the Class Rep's surprise at her best friend's sudden movement. "You're spacing out."
"...This is a dream."
"Eh?" Dumbfounded, 'Hikari Horaki' asked the redhead again. "What are you talking about?"
The young Soryu suddenly stood up and ran away, throwing away her plate of food. The freckled girl immidiately ran after her, slamming the door aside to reach to her friend. They ran and ran, until the redhead decided to stop at the school roof and faced her best friend.
Trying to take a break and recover her strength after running for several minutes, the Class Rep breathed heavily. The redhead looked at her friend with a look of disgust on her face.
"You're not her."
"What are you talking about, Asuka?"
"Where am I? What is this place?"
"Asuka?" The freckled girl tilted her head, unsure what her friend was talking about. "Did you have a nightmare last night or something?"
"Shut up." The redhead looked down to the ground, breaking their eye contact. "Shut up!"
The redhead suddenly collapsed, hands holding her head as if it was about to explode.
"This is not real this is not real this is not real this is not real this is not real this is not real"
The world around her started to fade away, including the confused freckled girl, revealing a gigantic First Child looking at her. Asuka screamed in horror. Then, out of nowhere, an unknown Evangelion painted in black flew towards Rei Ayanami before splitting the monstrous face in two with its spear.
"Wake up, little girl. Wake up and live your future."
Lilith/Rei Ayanami opened her eyes. Looking around, she found herself chained to a broken train seat. She could only see the red sea, and the millions of crosses with some Eva-like figures on them.
"Where am I?"
"Good, you have awakened. Also, the correct question would be 'what happened to me?', no?"
seeing a jet-black Evangelion human-sized figure standing in the dark, which almost successfully fooled her into thinking no one was there if it weren't for her impressive eyesight. This Evangelion was unlike any other models Rei had ever seen. Its design resembles a human, with key differences such as an orange halo floating on the back of its head, and distorted and detached shoulder pylons that hover over Evangelion's shoulders like a pair of capes that you often see in comics. However, the most distinctive detail is the head armor, because this black Evangelion has a pair of grey-black horns on its helmet, replacing the usual eyes spot an Evangelion usually has for its eyes. However, Rei Ayanami could swear it was looking at her.
"Oh, you understood my words? It seems the auto-translation feature worked quite well after a long time. Let's start with a simple introduction." The Evangelion's voice came out of its helmet, like a distorted radio's voice. The Nephilim watched the Evangelion in silence, waiting for its response.
"My name is Armaros-42, codenamed Failsafe. A Production-type Armaros created by Nigreos and Albus colliding with each other, or also known as Black Moon and White Moon from the Lilims- Ahem." The Evangelion faked coughing to get the blunette's attention, who was sleepily opening and closing her eyes. "My creators, also known as First Ancestral Race by Lilith-02's children, have predicted the possiblity of the two Seeds Of Life getting sent to a planet, so they programmed the Moons so that after Nigreos and Albus got destroyed, they would merge into a new Moon and create the emergency protocols: in this case, a Production Type Armaros and one Ark to recover all life forms' information, in case the two Seeds merges and begins to distort the universe's space-time laws and balances. Yes, miss Blue-haired Teenager?" The Evangelion asked Rei who was raising her hand like a student.
"What are you here for?" Rei asked, curious about the anomaly's purpose. She was 50% scared, 35% curious, and 15% dumbfounded by this sudden change of development. She was about to initate the completion of Third Impact, then suddenly, she was here instead of merging all the humans' souls together with her own soul, becoming a fully-completed god, just like Lilith's will was telling her to do so. Feeling whole again after being seperated, she couldn't feel Lilith's consciousness insider her anymore for some reason. "Please speak normally. It's hard to hear you talking boldly." She added.
"Ow. Alright." He tapped his helmet a bit, changing his voice sound. "Initially, my original purpose was stay on the Moon to protect Ark from being devoured in this madness you called Third Impact. I couldn't leave the final gift of my creators being destroyed by their 'hopes', so I remained on the Moon instead of intervening to stop the incident. But it seemed like its radius was bigger than they'd expected." Armaros grimaced under his mask. "The Moon was destroyed by the sheer pressure of Third Impact, and the Ark was unintentionally consumed by Lilith. I tried to stop the process, but it appeared I was too late to stop the process. Luckily, thanks to an anonymous's helping hand, I was able to separate you and the rest of the humans' souls from Lilith's advanced vessel, temporarily halting Third Impact. It's a matter of time until that monstrosity wakes up again and continues her evolution, destroying the world in the process."
The blunette shivered at his words. "How is the Second Angel going to destroy the world?"
"Third Impact has disrupted the natural flow of time and space with its sheer amount of energy output, completely destroying the originally intended future and creating violations of the timeline, leading us to completely different futures where specific events have or have not occured." Armaros looked down to the ground. "However, we cannot continue this timeline anymore. Physically, we cannot leave this timeline to hop on another branch of a different future and continue existing without causing pernament harms to this world that was already on the verge of total annihilation by this incident. Our places in those futures have been replaced by different versions of us as a result of creating multiple outcomes. In simpler terms, we have no future."
"We... have no future?" She asked again.
"Unless you somehow picked up the pieces and successfully recreated the original future, then yes, currently, we don't have a future. That means everything is already over. After a certain point in history, we will only stay like this, forever. Just a sudden, abrupt stop to everything in existence, except for the new Futures. They would continue to exist and go on, unlike us."
"...I see."
Rei Ayanami was controlled by Lilith during the Third Impact when the two consciousnesses were merged into one, with the personality of the dominating Angel that would control her body. The angel even went so far as to use her voice to solicit the chosen candidate, Shinji Ikari, to decide the fate of the world, leading to his sudden outburst and a temporary halt in the Impact's completion.
If she protested against Gendo, none of this would have happened. That was her thought at the moment. Now, just because she was foolish enough to let a omnicidal man touched her with his mutated arm, things have gone to madness.
Rei Ayanami suddenly felt a knot in her stomach as she realized the painful truth.
It was her fault.
Watching the blue-haired girl lowering her gaze in sorrow, the Evangelion couldn't help but felt a bit sorry for her. Armaros was no expert at understanding human's emotions, but seeing someone this sad was enough for him to sympathize with. From his point of view, this girl was simply used as a pawn by forces that was infinitely greater than her existence. Her whole life, her definition of existence was stomped on, thrown away like disposable trash after it fulfilled its purpose by her superiors.
"There's no point in grieving over what's been lost." Armaros shook his head, breaking the ice by saying a quote that he just thought of(he removed the spilling milk part and replaced with his words, which definitely succeeded at sounding cool, according to him.). His voice was also reverted back to his bold tone again. "Please get over it, Rei Ayanami. Despite what I previously stated, you could join a different Future with my help. I can't guarantee 100% that you can continue living happily as he wished, but at least you will have a future. However," Armaros placed a hand on his black metallic hip. "Due to the universal laws of time and space, I, regretfully, cannot send everyone's souls to one particular Future. One Original alone can damage the timeline a lot on its own, but it's easy to fix by simply acting like your counterpart of that world, who you will fuse and become them to continue existing. Two Original existing in the same Future and that makes it a different story."
"Will I be able to keep my memories after coming into this new world?" Rei Ayanami asked tremblingly, afraid of losing the only thing she had left in this battered world. She had her everything stolen by others, her life, her purpose, and her only friend, who went missing because Lilith sent him away and whose whereabouts are still unknown. Losing her memories would mean she had nothing left. "I don't want to lose it. Those memories are painful, but I would lose my purpose if I forgot my reason for living."
"No, I'm afraid it's not possible. Too many changes can make the new Future become unstable, and your memories was one of those changes. I'm very sorry if you was expecting a 'yes'."
"...I see." Feeling the chains loosening, Rei Ayanami saw the black Evangelion approaching her. It offered a hand, which she grabbed to get back on her feet. She felt numbness all over her ghostly-pale legs,which suffered from doing seiza on a broken train seat for a long time. However, she quickly ignored the pain and looked at Armaros, who was dragging her to somewhere.
The black Evangelion stopped at the entrance of the pod. "We're here." It pointed at space-like looking emergency pod planted on the red sand ground, hidden behind a giant pile of rock. Understanding Armaros' gesture, the blunette silently walked her way to enter the ship. Standing before the pod, Rei turned back to face the Evangelion one last time.
"This is it." She said bluntly, saddened by the fact that everything that happened to her will just disappear in a matter of seconds, including her soon-to-be-previous life.
"Indeed. I'm very sorry for your loss, miss Ayanami." The Evangelion looked at her downcast face, sympathizing with the poor soul's situation. "I hope your life will be brighter. It's what he wanted, after all."
Huh? Rei Ayanami was surprised with the sudden reappearance of the previously-mentioned character. "Before I lose my memories once and for all, can I ask you this question, Armaros?"
"Yes, miss Ayanami?"
"Who is this 'he' you were mentioning?" She asked the Evangelion.
There was a moment of silence before the Evangelion answered the question.
"Do you really need to know?"
She hesitated at the question, but she quickly got over it and nodded. "I do want to know. You seemed to speak highly of him."
The orange halo behind him wavered.
"...Very well. It was this one boy, nearly on the verge of breakdown when I first saw him. He sacrificed himself so that I was able to stop the Intrusmentality's process. His name was Shinji, Shinji Ikari."
The temperature of the atmosphere seemed to drop down a bit. Then, a sudden scream of agony echoed across the battered land, signaling the awakening of the Lilith/Rei Ayanami, causing the Evangelion to flinch. The blunette who was standing before Armaros had disappeared.
"Oh, damn it."
- Part 3: His Wish. -
*[Track playing: JustiĻ, Shuhei Naruse ver.]*
"It was a terrible decision, it really was a terrible decision it really was a terrible deci- Ow!" The black Evangelion who had enlarged himself to the normal Eva's size yelped, dodging the attacks while flying past the white spikes at a concerning high speed. Armaros was not having the best time of his life. Blocking another A.T Blast using his Spears, the Evangelion cursed as the duration of attacks got bigger and longer as time went by.
Somehow, Lilith had suddenly awakened, way faster than he'd expected. The Second Angel was able to take back the blunette by teleporting the girl back to her body, fully regained her power.
"And the Montrosity was being too aggressive... Did something trigger it?" The Evangelion instantly knew the answer. "Oh, no. It must be my slip of tongue back there. Shit. I didn't know Lilith could respond to her Children's emotions!"
The two opponents battled eachother as if it was a deathmatch. Animalistic and overly-aggressive, the comically large version of Rei Ayanami twisted her face into a bloodlust smirk, summoning multiple A.T Fields and transforming them into diverse weapons such as spikes. And spikes. And spikes... Yep, he lied. It wasn't diverse at all.
"No creativity at all. Still, this is impressive. Lilith is evolving constantly in order to defeat its prey. My attacks using the Longinus's replicas are getting weaker and weaker as the battle goes on." Grabbing the orange halo behind his head, the Evangelion twisted it into a spear before throwing it at Lilith. "How about... this!"
Instantly recognized the incoming threat, the titan raised its defensive barriers, only to have its eyes pierced by the spear because the barriers were easily crushed like paper by the orange projectile. It quickly dispersed into a mist of orange light before completely disappear from the eyes. Screaming incomprehensibly, Lilith raised all of its barriers up again, turning them into even more spikes before blasting them at an exhausted Armaros. Tired after using his finishing move, the Evangelion let his guard down and suffered heavily as some of the projectiles got into its armor.
"Oof." Touching the now melting white spikes, Armaros found himself in a difficult situation. "It's trying to infect me and turn me into its puppet? But I'm literally immune to Seeds... Damn it. This thing is getting too strong as the fight went by."
It's the time for his last resort. The Evangelion opened its mouth, releasing a orange substance. The substance instantly covered Armaros and hardened, shielding the black Evangelion like a cocoon. Feeling a shiver running down its neck, Lilith unconsciously stepped back(or floated back, since she was floating the whole time) and hissed.
A ray of light was emitted through a crack in the orange cocoon. Gradually, more rays of light appeared as new rifts opened, before the cocoon exploded in an explosion of light, blinding an entire sky. Shielding its eyes from the light attack, Lilith used its white hands to clear the dusty air that was hovering in the atmosphere to see the Evangelion.
A black sword quickly blocked its view again.
"You know, I'm not really this talkative before." The owner of the sword tightened his grips on the blade, intending to cut the white creature in half. "Mainly due to the fact that I was alone for the majority of my life."
A sudden kick from the mysterious Evangelion successfully distanced him and the white Angel. Lilith stumbled back on her feet, clearly surprised by the sudden attack. Removing the dusty smoke screen with a quick slash, Armaros revealed his new form: A bulky black Evangelion with his helmet vaguely resembling the face of a Eastern Dragon, its limbs are now even bigger than normal and more animal-like than before. The floating shoulder pylons were fused into eachother, creating the gigantic black sword Armaros was wielding on his hands.
Without hesistation, the dragon-like Evangelion dashed forward and hit the Divine Lilith with its sword, cutting off her limbs like noodles. Lilith wasn't even able to scream in pain, as its mind was focused on blocking the rapid attacks succession from Armaros. Knocking the Angel to the ground with a swift chop, the Evangelion opened its mouth.
"Did you know what I wondered when I was on the Moon, all alone by myself and no one to talk to?" Armaros said. "Nothing. Because I didn't even think about anything back there. But then, suddenly, one day, I had an epiphany. What if there was someone I could talk to? What if my purpose wasn't just to guard the Ark? I sent some of my drones to scout this world, this planet."
"I was surprised to see there were so many lifeforms there. Lilims, in particular. They developed a lot after being seperated from you, Lilith-02. They developed a civilization, similar to our creators' but not as advanced as theirs. But sadly, things were not going easy for you and your Children. Your children's curiosity and greed brought this world to destruction. For that, I sympathized with you. But fusing with all of the independent souls of your Children is not the way to solve the problem." Kicking his blade and sending it to Lilith like a bullet, Armaros continued talking to the Angel, trying to beat some sense to it.
"You cannot just reject their individuality! Being stronger... won't help you restore this already broken world! So please, Lilith-02, calm down so that we could speak on terms!" The Angel countered the blade by simply knocking it off aside and punched the Eva with a spiked hand. Despite its injury, the Evangelion spoke. "I know that you're in pain because your Children is also in pain! You wished to end their pain, but that solution of yours only worsen the situation!" Armaros sucker-punched the white beast, causing Lilith to fall to the ground. "You have to let them decide their own future! So please, spit out the souls and let me save them from this battered world!"
In response, the white Lilith simply shouted for the fifth time and returned to her fighting stance. Seeing his strategy not working as expected, Armaros decided to initiate Plan B.
"Hey, Lilith! Did you know why I transformed to this new form?" Clashing with the hideous Angel, the Evangelion opened his mouth again while pointing at his right hand. "Did you feel something familiar with it? No?"
The Angel's response was a barrage of spikes. Deflecting the spikes with ease, Armaros stood still on his feet instead of trying to attack the Angel. "I won't attack you anymore. Take your time."
The Angel tilted its head in confusion before trying to sense the familar scent. Somewhat convinced by its opponent, Lilith approached the dragon-like Evangelion to inspect it.
"Wait, it was that easy!?" Armaros was shocked. Still, he quickly regained his inner compusure to stand uprightly. Silently channeling the surging energy of a certain boy's soul to his hand, Armaros put his right palm in front of the Angel.
"Familiar, right? I know that you are still in there, Rei Ayanami." It said, changing the voice to a lower tone. "This... was the power of The Trigger Of Instrumentality. In other words, Shinji Ikari. He gave me his life to use it to ensure that all of you are going to live... So, please, stop attacking and snap out of it!"
"Shinji... Shinji!" The voice of Rei Ayanami spoke, causing Lilith to flinch, unsure of what just happened. Rei Ayanami... just broke out of her control!?
"Yes, yes! Remember, Rei Ayanami! Don't let his life be wasted for nothing! DON'T LET THAT LAST DREAM OF HIS DISAPPEAR JUST LIKE THAT! REJECT LILITH, AND EMBRACE YOUR FUTURE! Wake up, Rei Ayanami and billions of Lilims in there, WAKE UP!"
"Don't listen to it!" The distorted voice of Lilith echoed in the sky. "It killed him! It killed your only friend, Rei! Fuse with me, and I will take back Shinji for you, Rei!"
Faced with two different paths, Rei Ayanami began her final contemplation.
- Part X: Another Impact. -
Hmm...
What a boring day.
I'm your host as usual, Mr. Who-had-forgotten-his-name. Here we are with the usual activity of floating inside space, which is staring at nothing at all.
...
I still can't remember a thing.
It's too dark, like when you're in a tropical forest with no torches or lights at night, except it's worse. I can't even feel anything. I can barely do anything at all, except thinking about myself.
How long have I been thinking?
...Ah great, forgot to count again.
Hmph. What is my purpose? Staring at nothing or what?
What's my name again... Argh, no clue. Nothing comes to mind except one thought after another.
I tried to speak, but no words came out. I tried to scream, but no sound came out either.
It's like I was not existing at all. I couldn't feel anything, I couldn't do anything, and I couldn't even see anything except the ominous black space.
I always hated black. I hate its colour. It's disgustingly hideous. Nothing came out of it, and it scares me by just simply being there.
Hmm... so boring. I wished someone could just appear in here and take me to somewhere else. Anything but this hellhole, please.
Noticing a bright blue light, I looked behind me and saw a object flying across the space like a flying blue rock. Wait a minute... Oh YEAH, That is a passing-by shooting star there! Great, I can make a wish now! I wish I have a friend, since it is so boring being here alone! And please take me out of here, too!
I closed my eyes and began praying to the shooting star, hoping my wishes could reach the ears of the deity behind it.
Ichi...ni...san! The wish must be real now! I opened my eyes in excitement, but the excitement quickly died as there was still no one around here.
Man, couldn't it just grant my dream? Ugh, back to being depressed now I guess. Grumbling to myself, I went back to staring to the ominous space around me, not noticing the light behind my back was getting bigger and bigger as time went by.
...The comet is flying towards me, isn't it?
"STUPID SISTER! YOU KICKED ME OUT RIGHT AFTER YOU USED ME LIKE A MEAN TO YOUR GOAL!? OUR BROTHER-SISTER RELATIONSHIP ONLY MEANS THAT MUCH TO YOU!?"
What was that screaming? And why does it keep getting bigger-
Shinji Ikari snapped back from his trance. Apperently, he was continuing his bad habit of daydreaming again. Sighing, the boy gently slapped his cheeks to stay awake. He did spent his time talking to his friends last night before coming to Tokyo-3 here, after all.
Looking at the empty city, Shinji found himself standing alone at a telephone booth. The street was not as crowded as he thought Tokyo-3 would be. Surprisingly, there was practically no one here. Feeling his semi-intrusive thoughts kicking in, the brunette boy raised his backpack and both of his hands on the sky.
"Yoshaa~! Shinji Ikari is here, people! The amazing, almighty, super awesome young boy has arrived! This is the time for my legend in Tokyo-3!" He shouted to the empty street. "Nice, I always wanted to say that for a long time. It's lucky that no one was here, though."
He stood there dumbfounded before realizing the reason why everyone was gone at the moment.
"Chotto matte, didn't I just hear an emergency evacuation?" He gasped in disbelief. "Gah! Why did I just ignore the warning... Woah?!" He fell on his butt as the ground shook violently. "Is it an earthquake?! Quick, I must quickly go to the safe zone before my cause of death is classified as 'death by natural cause'!" Stating the obvious, the boy got on his feet and sprinted full speed ahead, dodging the falling debris of the buildings while doing fake ballet in the air. Several shards of black matter escaped his palms and floated in the sky, slicing the bigger debris into millions of pieces in a blink of an eye.
Being overshadowed by something big over his head, Shinji was unhindered on his path to safe zone... until a giant turquoise foot appeared in front of his eyes and almost stomped him, if it wasn't for the intervention of a a blue Renault Alpine A310. Surprised at his sudden shift of surrounding, Shinji found himself stuck in a car driven by a purple-haired woman, who was desperately trying to drift her way out of the giant walking over her head and his.
"The name is Misato Katsuragi, no time to explain. Tighten your seatbelt, boy! This is going to be a hell of a ride!"
Shinji didn't need to hear the order twice as his face was instantly slammed to the window. Surprisingly unconcerned at his injury, the boy's mind was only thinking about one thing.
"THIS IS FRICKING AWESOME! I wished you could be here, Adam. You would love to see this kind of stunt!"
His legend has only just begun.
Somewhere, at different places, changes had already been made.
Somewhere, a mother returned with the spear of hope.
Somewhere, a German girl woke up with a new goal in her mind, and a spear appeared out of nowhere.
Somewhere, an unknown force awakened, and a new path opened.
The world will not be the same anymore, due to the wish of a certain boy. The era of the end has finally arrived. Behold, everybody! A brand new future, created from the greatest, strongest, happiest desires of people! Will they be satisfied with the new world? Will the Scenerios still matter in this world? Will Misato's couch stop randomly appearing and disappearing?
Only time will tell. For once, time is on our side.
oh yeah finally, 7k words! New record, baby! It's hella fun to rewrite this chapter! Took me a lot of time, but here it is, everyone!
I hoped you enjoyed this chapter. You can leave a review to support this fanfiction! I'm still pretty amateur at writing, so any writing advices from you readers would help me a lot!
I will see you again in the next chapter! Have a great day/night, everyone!