Creation began on 09-13-20

Creation ended on 04-27-21

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Sword of Destruction, Sword of Life: A short reprieve

Gasp! Shinji awoke to a white ceiling and finding himself within a familiar room where he found himself the first time he was in the Eva. He found his left arm and his torso wrapped in thick bandages, indicating that his injuries had been recently mended by medical practitioners.

"Shinji!" He heard Misato's voice as he saw her run into the room and embraced him. "You're finally awake!"

"Aah!" He winced as he was being hugged a little too tightly by his guardian. "What…what happened out there? How long have I been here?"

Misato released him and sat back on a nearby stool, regaining her composure.

"It's been five hours," she explained. "You've been in recovery for less than four hours. Communication between Tokyo-3 has been severed on account of that…thing in the sky. We're trying to get as many of the people into shelters, but those…zombies are making things difficult. We haven't located your father yet."

Shinji sighed and raised his right hand to his bandaged chest; the last thing he could recall was getting stabbed in the back by a deformed suit of armor…and he had awoken from a nightmare where he was getting stabbed by it again.

"Then…it's possible that he's still out there," he suggested.

"Yeah," she agreed, and then saw him try to get out of bed. "No, Shinji, you nearly died out there. You need to rest."

"If he's still out there, and he still has those two swords, nobody is safe from him," Shinji told her. "I'm the only one who can stop him."

"Maybe, but not if you're near death. This isn't an Angel that's out to wipe out the human race. This is a madman that somehow got two swords that gave him dangerous powers, one of which drives him to go on killing people."

"Except that the sword hasn't affected him like I thought it was. Sō'unga and Tōkijin, the Swords of Death and Hatred, only unleashed how he already felt on the inside. He already despised me and had no qualms about killing me out of spite. As long as he's out there and has those swords, he's just going to keep on hurting anyone that can be hurt…until he's been stopped."

As much as Misato believed him, she couldn't risk Shinji getting killed by his father while he was barely recovered from his own injuries. Even if he wasn't piloting the Eva, anymore, he still had to be protected until he had recovered.

"We don't even know where he's hiding yet," she told him.

"He won't go far," he responded. "If he's out to get me, he'll stay close to the city."

-x-

Tokyo-3 wasn't much of a city at the moment, anymore. With the portal to Hell still active, but progressing slowly due to Gendo's own injuries still regenerating, only forty percent of the city had been consumed. This, combined with the zombified victims of Sō'unga, made either evacuating the city or getting into shelters a difficult feat to avoid getting slaughtered.

Gendo, taking shelter in a small building, flexed his regenerated arms as he stood up in front of the Sword of Hell.

"Is it time?" He asked it.

Yes, Sō'unga replied. We've recouped long enough.

"At last, we finish this."

-x-

"…How is he doing?" Rei asked Misato about Shinji as the woman came back from the infirmary for the third time in the last hour.

"On the mend," she explained, "but not happy that he's being kept from facing his father."

"Unlike his old man," went Asuka, "he doesn't recover as fast, even with those swords of his. What are the chances that he'll be able to walk again, even after he recovers?"

Ritsuko sighed and gave her professional opinion on Shinji's recovery.

"The chances of him making a full recovery are less than eighty percent," she stated, "but if he gets worked up, his recovery decreases. His stab wound missed his organs and spine, but he still lost enough blood to leave him feeling weak."

"And if he doesn't take the time to recover?" Misato asked her.

"I don't want to speculate on what could happen to him if he doesn't take the time to recover."

The ladies were upset about how serious this was.

-x-

Shinji knew that he couldn't let his father and Sō'unga keep hurting people, but with his injuries keeping him from going after them, he felt like an invalid. He didn't enjoy this; if his father continued to torment the people and the world, there would be no end to it all…not until he was stopped.

I can't just lay here and do nothing, he thought, looking around the room he was in, feeling restless. I need to be out there looking for them. I have to stop him before he can hurt any one else. If I can still walk, I can still fight.

He got out of bed and stood up. Weak at first, but he felt his stiffness fade as he started walking around the room. After four minutes went by, he felt like his stiffness had left his legs, and he left the room. The hall was empty, but he had his suspicions that he was being watched by security cameras that were hidden around the place.

I'm sorry, Misato, Asuka, Ayanami, he thought as he found the staircase, but I'm all that can stop the world from ending.

-x-

Gendo stood in front of the NERV base, unaffected by the portal to Hell due to being opened in the city, being treated as a separate place, almost like what abstract mathematics explained as a Sea of Dirac. So long as his son still lived, the two swords he wielded still posed a threat to him and his revenge against the world. The sooner he dealt with Shinji, the sooner everyone would be at his mercy. Suddenly, he saw a door open…and saw his broken and still-weakened brat walk out, dressed in hospital garments with bandages, looking as though he had a death wish on his mind.

"You just saved me the trouble of having to look for you," he told Shinji, brandishing Sō'unga in front of him. "Any last words?"

Shinji walked in front of his father and raised his right hand up, pointing his index finger at him.

"I can't beg for you to cease this madness, so I won't," he told Gendo, "but I will stop you, Father. I will stop you."

"Foolish boy, you couldn't stop me, even if you had a year to prepare."

-x-

"Oh, no!" Asuka gasped, seeing Shinji not in the infirmary…and Gendo outside the base.

"What is he doing out there?!" Ritsuko demanded.

"Putting an end to this," Misato realized.

"He's not even recovered yet. He could die out there."

"Get Unit-02 ready for launch!" Asuka insisted; it didn't matter how strong those swords made Gendo, he was still a man and still vulnerable to being harmed by something much greater than himself, such as an Evangelion.

"Wait," went Rei, pointing to Shinji as he summoned his two swords.

"No matter how long I have right now," they heard Shinji say to his father, "every second will be spent trying to stop you. I'll never give up. To you, to Sō'unga, nobody."

If this was Shinji's dying declaration, he certainly knew how to make it sound like what was going to happen between he and his father would be the last thing he ever did.

I don't like this, thought Misato as she turned to face Asuka. "You better hurry up and get to Unit-02, Asuka."

To be continued…

A/N: With everything that has happened this year due to last year, and things that have yet to happen, some of which I don't want to happen at all, I really felt like I had to complete this chapter. Even though Shinji in this case has yet to recover from his injuries, he can't allow his father to continue tormenting the innocent people around them because he's too full of hatred to see hope. And even though I had to make it seem like it would be his final fight, you gotta have faith in the end that he will prevail, even if he ends up crippled.