Creation began on 09-01-21
Creation ended on 09-14-21
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Sword of Destruction, Sword of Life: Sanctification
A/N: In the end, it is our souls that must be saved above our own lives.
Rei felt Tenseiga pulsate in her hands. Her eyes received a glimpse of where Shinji was, and she gasped at his current condition; she had seen him in critical condition, but now he looked beyond saving, but he still held on with everything he had. She turned to face Major Katsuragi and the Second Child.
"He's in the underworld," she revealed to them, "hiding from his father in the darkest place he could find."
"Is he…dead?" Asuka asked.
"No…but he is dying. His father hurt him badly. If he can't come back here, we have to go to him, get him this sword back."
"You do realize that's ridiculous, right? We can't go someplace like that while alive."
"With this, we can."
"Are you sure?" Misato asked her.
Suddenly, Tenseiga glowed and enveloped the three in a sphere of light and sank into the ground.
-x-
Slice! Gendo used Tōkijin to cut through a quartet of demons that came his way as he searched for Shinji.
"You can't hide forever, boy!" He yelled as he cleaved his way through seven more demons of lesser strength in the darkness of this despicable place. "I'll find you! I'll bury you where you cower! You hear me?!"
Sō'unga stayed silent and allowed the mortal to vent his frustration against these fallen demons; even without the Tenseiga, it knew the boy was, without a doubt, nearing the end of his life with his injuries. It was only a matter of time and patience before the only threat to their reign was dealt with. They had all the time they needed to deal with the brat.
As another demon emerged from the darkness, Gendo dispatched it by decapitating its head off.
"Rrrrrraaurgh!" He roared. "Where are you?!"
-x-
"…What?" Misato reacted to finding herself, Rei and Asuka in a dark place. "Where are we right now?"
"I think we're in Hell," said the redhead to her, looking around them and seeing only darkness reaching for what seemed like miles. "That baka really sent himself and his old man here?"
"But…where is Shinji hiding?"
Rei, still holding Tenseiga, pointed to her left, down a path that was barely illuminated in front of the three women.
"We need to go that way," she told them.
"How do you know?" Asuka questioned, and Rei held up the sheathed sword.
"Tenseiga will lead the way," she explained.
-x-
It was a long time since Shinji ever felt pitiful agony of a nightmare. His perception of a world made black and white, like an old film before color was invented, and seeing his childhood self being left alone and neglected by his father.
Never again, he thought, seeing himself sitting down on the ground and watching his past catch up to him. I refuse to be bound to the despicable shame and contempt of the Ikari family. They fell into their downfall the very instant my parents made their choices to drag everyone down a self-destructive path. I broke free of that path when I left the service of NERV as a pilot for their abominations. No matter what any of them say or think about me, their fate is their own problems. I'm not bound to their doom, regardless of whether I end up here or in some other pit of despair.
Then, his childhood self was suddenly approached by a man that looked like he belonged to a different era, like the ones associated with the samurai, because he certainly looked like one, armor and pants and everything in between, with long hair tied in a ponytail and pointed ears and amber eyes. He felt like he had seen this man before, but he couldn't remember where.
"When you break free of your path and continue to demonstrate compassion for your kind, you become the master of your own fate and can no longer be manipulated by those that seek to exploit you ever again," the man told him.
"Who…who are you?" Shinji's younger self asked him.
"I'm just a traveling swordsman…looking for reason to see hope in a hopeless situation."
"Hope in a hopeless situation?"
"You'll understand…when you're older. Until then, don't lose faith in what you can do when faced with adversity of the most unforgivable sort. You're stronger than you realize."
"…Shinji…Shinji…Shinji…" He heard voices calling out to him. "…Shinji…Shinji…"
He tried to move, but his body felt weak. His legs felt like noodles and his arms felt like a jigsaw puzzle as he was on the ground. In fact, his body felt weaker than it had before he lost consciousness in the underworld to buy time for himself to recover.
Come on, Shinji, he thought to himself as he tried to move. This isn't how you go out. This is not how you go out. Move!
Opening his eyes, Shinji found himself where he lay upon ending up in the nether realm, still broken and in serious need of medical attention.
"Aaurgh! Aaaurgh!" He groaned as he turned onto his front, gripping Tessaiga in his right hand as he tried to crawl away from where he laid.
-x-
Gasp! Rei felt Tenseiga pulsate again, as if trying to tell her to go a certain direction in this strange place in the darkness.
"What is it, Rei?" Misato asked her.
"We're not the only ones looking for Ikari-Kun," she informed her and Asuka.
Suddenly, the environment changed to resemble the streets of Tokyo-3, only in a ruined state instead of how Shinji had perceived it when he had arrived for the first time: Lonely.
"Yikes," went Asuka. "This is Hölle."
"Yeah," Misato agreed with her; a version of Tokyo-3 that had been decimated by various battles had to be a version of Hell on Earth if it had been abandoned by people after NERV…or some other group…failed to keep it safe. "It is."
Walking down the lonely street, the three women encountered a large door being watched over by two large statues.
"Halt," one of them, the one on the left, declared to the trio. "Who dares to try to and enter the realm of the damned?"
"Uh, we do," Asuka stated simply.
"None that are still alive shall pass and live to tell about it," the other statue on the right proclaimed. "You shall not pass."
They brandished their weapons against the three, a large spear and zanbato, forcing Asuka and Misato to back away.
"We're here to rescue someone we know to be in danger," Rei explained.
"Your soul is already forfeit to the darkness that awaits you on your path, she who lives a condemned life for the darkness of a master that has no dominion over anything or anyone," the statue on the left told her, aiming its spear at her. "Those that dare to trespass must learn the cruel error of trying to cross the border between this realm and the living realm where all living things have only a measure of time to spend."
"Gozu, wait," the other statue uttered, pointing towards the girl. "I recognize that sword in her hands. The previous holder came down here long ago. That's the Tenseiga."
The statue, this Gozu, looked down at Rei and the sword in her hands…and confirmed that it was the same sword they had encountered once before. Then they both knelt before the albino girl.
"Gozu and Mezu recognize the powerful Tenseiga," the spear-holding statue decreed. "Those wielding the sword with the power of life over death, hope and despair, shall pass without harm."
The gate in front of them opened on its own.
"Let's go," Rei told Asuka and Misato.
"But be warned," the zanbato-holding statue informed, "there is pain and despair on this path you go down. Although there are three of you, one of you will fall. But which one?"
Misato felt like they were being threatened by them, but since neither statue actually laid a hand on them, all it really felt like were words. But even words held a measure of hostility in them if someone had some type of foresight. If the threat was true, then it meant that one of them wouldn't be coming back from this journey to rescue Shinji. But which one of them would lose their life down here?
Asuka, the aggressive pilot of Unit-02?
Rei, the quiet pilot of Unit-00?
Or Misato, the tactical commanding officer of NERV?
"You don't actually believe that nonsense, do you?" Asuka asked her. "One of us paying a price just for being down here?"
"I don't think they were lying," she responded. "As soon as they saw the sword, they backed off and let us go. If they were some sort of guards that keep the living from entering and the dead from escaping, then they probably have some clairvoyance, able to see some measure of the future before it happens."
"Except they only said one of us wouldn't be coming back, not who, meaning it could be any of us…or maybe none of us."
"Except you don't know much about Japanese mythology, Asuka. There are a lot of things here that have a deeper meaning that challenges one's sense of belief and worth."
BLAST! They heard a large explosion from down the street, and they got worried.
Coming to a crosswalk, they saw several dozens of demons and humans getting flung around in the air by something. A severed head with horns landed in front of their feet and it looked up at them as it crumbled away.
"That human…isn't right," it spoke in a female voice. "With or without those swords of his, he is just beyond any shred of salvation. He should be buried in the deepest parts of Hell where even the masters don't venture into."
"This…this human," Misato questioned, "is he about my height, dark hair, sideburns, beard and glasses? Awful personality?"
"Yes."
The head then wasted away completely, leaving no doubt that this assailant was Gendo.
BLAST! Another explosion came along and more demons and humans were sent flying across the street.
Asuka looked down and saw as a bunch of more demons, all large, small, muscly, skinny, red, blue, green, violet, were sent flying by a slash of light, shredding them to pieces in the process. She saw Gendo, looking even more ragged and inhuman than a man could become, wielding Tōkijin and Sō'unga.
"Worthless fools!" He yelled. "Always in my way! Everyone is always in my way!"
Several men and women, all of whom were dead and corpse-like, got up off the ground and gathered around Gendo, but he swung Tōkijin again and released another slash of light at them, shredding them to bits.
The ladies ran back the other way before he could see them, just wanting to get as far away from him as possible.
"I know you three are here!" They heard his voice. "Aaaurgh!"
"Oh, great, he's chasing us now!" Misato whined.
-x-
One moment ago, he was crawling in a tunnel, and the next thing Shinji knew, he was in a dark hallway of some building. Somehow, the netherworld was shifting to resemble other places, reshaping to look like wherever he'd seen or been. He could barely move eight inches across the floor with his injuries, taking three minutes just to climb up a flight of stairs going to the next level.
Everything hurts, he thought as he dragged himself past an elevator; he doubted that those things worked down here in the nether realm.
"Should you need help in your darkest hour," he recalled a voice saying to him at one point in the past, "all you need do is ask."
"Yeah, whenever you need it," another voice added, "all you need to do is ask for it."
Help in my darkest hour? He thought as he felt his left arm give out under him. "I'm dying…and I know my father will not stop until he's killed everyone he can, with or without Sō'unga and Tōkijin. I…I need help to find him. I need help to stop him."
Stomp! The floor shook, and he looked around as much of the hall as he could.
Something was in the hall with him, probably approaching where he was.
"I rarely see a living human down here," he heard a male voice and looked up ahead of himself, seeing a large creature emerge from the darkness. "How do you do, young man?"
It was…some sort of monster wolf, dressed in medieval Japanese armor, standing as tall as a human, with blue eyes and an almost-friendly demeanor.
"Who…who are you?" Shinji asked him.
"Rōyakan, one of the guardians of Hell," he introduced himself to the boy.
"Ro…Rōyakan? But…aren't you supposed to be a demon that actually watches over a forest? What are you doing down here?"
"Looking for you, actually. Strange, how that sword of yours beckoned me here."
"My sword? Tessaiga?"
"That's right."
Rōyakan then lowered down and carefully picked him up.
"Aaaurgh, aaaurgh!" Shinji groaned; even if the demon had been gentle with him, Shinji's body was just too injured.
"Who did this to you?" He asked him as he carried him down the hall.
"My father," he answered. "He has two demon swords of his own, Tōkijin and Sō'unga."
"Ah, those two are a dangerous combination for anyone to wield, human or demon. The Sword of Hatred, Tōkijin, was forged from the fangs of a lesser demon that was made from the flesh of a hanyō that used to be human. It was later destroyed and the pieces were left alone until they fell into the underworld here. Somehow, Sō'unga, the Sword of Death, found the pieces and made the demon swordsmith that originally forged Tōkijin reforge the sword again, restoring and enhancing it further. Sō'unga is a literal dragon of Hell trapped inside a sword forged to serve as its prison, and it compels whoever wields it to kill until there is nothing left. The Great Dog Demon considered it a shameful weakness to let something one was to control do the opposite and control you. Only the strongest of wills by the strongest of demons could ever be the master of Sō'unga. Any human wielding it might as well be walking towards their death sentence."
Shinji accepted this truth, since his father was the one wielding the demonic sword.
"He who wields the Swords of Heaven and Earth is destined to prevail," Rōyakan expressed.
"You mean, Tenseiga and Tessaiga?"
"That's right. One whose heart is ruled by his compassion and has no desire for personal gain can wield and expand upon the powers that be inside the two swords. Tenseiga, wielding its power to restore life to the dead, and Tessaiga, the protector of mortals that crushes one's foes."
Boom! They heard an explosion from outside and Rōyakan rushed to a room where a large hole where windows should've been was used to observe the happenings outside their current environment, seeing a new nightmare below them.
To Shinji, the world of Hell resembled the streets of Tokyo-3, and he could see several people and demonic beings getting slaughtered by a monster of a man wielding two swords that had fire swirling around their blades.
Oh, no, he thought, seeing his father eradicating the damned from his sight. Even in Hell, this is just wrong.
Pulse! He felt his heart beat an unsteady rhythm, as if trying to resonate with something.
Rōyakan then leapt out of the building and into the air, descending to the streets below. There, he smelled the scent of three human females that were as alive as Shinji, and ran the opposite way before Gendo could turn and see him.
"He was right there!" Shinji yelled. "You could've thrown me in his direction!"
"There are three women down here that don't belong," he told him. "They have the Tenseiga with them."
"Three women? Tenseiga? Probably Misato, Asuka and Ayanami, but how'd they get here?"
Rōyakan ran down three blocks until he came to a stop where large hole in the ground resided.
"Whoa," Shinji gasped, guessing that it was a representation of how people were sometimes destructive in the era of wars and would become so destructive that they left their cruel mark on the civilized world. "Hmm?"
On the opposite side of the hole, he could see three women, two dressed in red and white diving suits and one wearing a red coat.
"Yo!" He yelled over to them, hoping that they could hear him.
-x-
"Yo!" Misato heard a voice yell to them as they came to a stop at the giant hole in the ground, and looked across the street, seeing a large animal carrying a person.
"It's Shinji!" Asuka gasped, pointing over to them, and the animal leapt into the air. "Oh!"
The hole was the length of a highway pileup, and this creature carrying Shinji just jumped over it like it was nothing.
Slam! It landed two feet from them and turned to face them.
"Shinji," went Misato, relieved to see him still breathing. "You're okay."
"Actually, I'm far from okay," he responded. "Alive, yes, but not in good shape."
"You should've stayed in the trauma ward," Asuka told him.
"I doubt that he would've recovered if his father was going to kill you," said the animal to them.
"Uh, just what are you supposed to be?" Misato questioned; she had seen the Angels and some fictional animals from old cartoons, but never a talking creature that looked like it was from the past…and actually wearing clothes like a human would.
"He's Rōyakan," Shinji introduced them.
"Rōyakan?" Rei questioned; she had never heard of a creature by that name.
Of course, none of them ever really paid attention to mythology, so she wouldn't have understood demons without reading about them, focusing more on what was current instead of what was in the past.
"It's a…short story," Shinji explained.
Suddenly, the young man felt a chill go down his spine to his legs. It was a feeling of dread like before when he faced his father earlier. Even though he couldn't feel anything in his toes, the muscles were tense and wanting to pull him from the immediate danger zone.
"Did it just get colder here?" Asuka asked, seeing her breath in the air.
"Rei," they heard a man's voice say, and slowly turned away from the hole and to the back of the street they had run down, seeing their nightmare of a foe right now. "You should move out of the way of the Third Child right now."
Gendo, covered in blood and gore, his clothes tattered, his glasses broken and his eyes as dark as the night, stood before the four people and the demon that was with them.
"Why?" Rei asked him, seeing him raise up Sō'unga.
"He's already dying…and I intend to bury him," he answered her.
Shinji tightened his grip on Tessaiga and the blade grew into its true form, but he barely felt any strength left in his hand.
"Only because you hate him," she responded, unsheathing Tenseiga and handing it to Shinji. "Do you hate him that much that you're willing to murder him?"
"He betrayed NERV, betrayed me, and deserves to die down here…along with anyone that sides with him."
"Those who kill out of hate are doomed to die because of the hate they make others feel towards them," said Misato.
"Isn't that the same for you, Katsuragi? You hated your father, didn't you?"
"No. He let himself die. I had nothing to do with his death. You, on the other hand, you're trying to kill someone that won't do as you say, anymore…and never wanted to do as you say to begin with, someone you hate more than humanly possible, and you don't give an exact reason for why. Do you even know why? Why you hate him so much that you feel the drive to kill him?"
But Gendo didn't want to answer her. He just wanted to kill Shinji and anyone that either sided with him or stood in his way.
Just kill them all, Sō'unga told him. Kill them and be done with it. Kill, kill, kill!
Shinji saw him raise up Tōkijin and had Rōyakan set him down on his feet. Pain surged up his spine as the injured bones and tired muscles and nerves ached for more rest. As much as he wanted to give up and fall to the ground again, he couldn't let his father kill them because of his unjust hatred towards him.
"Rei, I will say again," Gendo told the albino, "move away from them…or your fate will be the same as theirs."
"Even if you die, you can be replaced, Rei," she remembered his words from way back then. "Even if you die, you can always be replaced. You're replaceable."
Replaceable… She thought as she was uncertain of whether or not to follow his order.
"If he ordered you to kill yourself, you'd do it, wouldn't you?" She heard the Second Child ask her once. "You only know how to take orders! You're a puppet! You don't have any free will to make yours own decisions!"
"Why do you pilot the Eva?" Shinji's question echoed in her mind. "After what happened in the last sortie, I'll never get back in there. No matter what happens, I'll never pilot the Eva again."
She sighed and nodded her head at Gendo.
"No," she told him.
"No?" He questioned.
"No," she repeated. "You'll kill us all the same, no matter what choice we make. You will kill us until you're stopped."
No kidding, thought Asuka.
"Then you can die with them," Gendo told her, raising Tōkijin up and unleashing a blast of demonic energy!
Shinji staggered to the front of them and brought up Tessaiga, keeping the demonic energy at bay, but it caused him to feel more pain in his bones and organs.
"Aaaah!" He gasped, feeling like some of his muscles got pulled or sliced through.
Tessaiga changed into its dragon-scaled form, absorbing the energy, making the pain subside in his body, but even Shinji knew that he was only delaying the inevitable. With every breath he took, he felt more ragged, blood draining from his veins, adrenaline working overtime, and the drowsiness trying to set in.
What was that old saying? He wondered as he held up the sword with his hands. Every day above ground being a good day?
A cut formed on his face and blood spilled onto his right cheek. The friction of energy tore his shirt to shreds, exposing his bandaged torso and blood-smeared bandages, a sign that his injuries had reopened and were hindering him, and new cuts formed on his shoulders and sides.
"You're weaker than you were before," Gendo told him, but Shinji didn't respond to the remark.
He most likely has only a few minutes left to live, Sō'unga informed Gendo. He wants to take a rest, but he's afraid for the women's safety. He wants what you humans call a vacation, but he can't forget his obligation to protect those that can't defend themselves. It will be his doom.
Asuka wanted to run, but feared what would happen if she did.
Misato took out her gun, but Rōyakan stopped her from shooting.
"Don't bother," he told her. "The yōki their swords are giving off is protecting them from everything except each other."
"But why is the…whatever this is…coming from Shinji's sword seem weaker?" She asked him.
"Because he's on his last breaths."
Asuka and Rei looked at Shinji, seeing several more cuts form on the flesh on his back. The Tenseiga was wedged into the ground behind him, probably meant to protect them from the danger of both Sō'unga and Tōkijin. It was like a storm raging between father and son, a series of twisters and a hurricane, but the twisters were worse than the hurricane itself.
He's worn out, Sō'unga told Gendo, seeing Shinji barely able to stand now. He's all talk and no substance now.
The energy between had been reduced…and Shinji dropped Tessaiga to the ground in front of Gendo, his breathing past ragged and his eyes losing their color.
"Heh-heh-heh," Gendo laughed. "You're truly pathetic right now. You're just a dead man standing. You were never a match for me. What does any pathetic child think they can achieve by standing up to their parents when they don't get their way?"
Shinji raised his left hand up…and gave his father the finger.
Gendo raised an eyebrow in annoyance over this act.
"Those that lack kindness of heart, compassion for others, even just basic humanity," Shinji uttered, "are those that have lost more than they realize. If you hate others that much to the point of being willing and able to kill them…then your greatest penance…is to suffer in isolation. You kill…and you're alone… Forever alone…and that…is a fate many times worse than that of death. Are you prepared to face that fate?"
Gendo raised up Tōkijin and thrust it forward in rage towards his son.
"Rrrraurgh!" He yelled, watching the sword pierce his chest, just above his heart, and then Shinji fell backwards onto the ground in front of the women and Rōyakan. "Just die!"
And in less than a second…his son did just that. There was no light, no angels, no final words, not even remorse for his actions. If Gendo could've said more to Shinji, it would've been to ask him if he saw the end of all life flash in front of his eyes. But even then, it would be just to say that he didn't believe in that notion at all.
-x-
He was dead. Stabbed right through the heart, by his own father, with a sword that clearly amplified one's own hatred. This was no illusion, no trick of the eyes, not even a video game where if something went wrong, you could just get a do-over. No, this…was a real nightmare in which the young man was truly dead.
Asuka couldn't believe that Gendo just killed his own son. In the beginning, she might've hated Shinji simply because of his inexperience with the Eva, but when he resigned after Toji's death and revival, she understood that, despite his quirks and attitude, she didn't hate him enough to want to see him dead. And then he saved her from the Angel in space that shot this beam of light at her and was able to defeat the following Angel, someone that was hoping to be able to walk away from the dealings with the Angels after they were all defeated.
Rei was at a loss for understanding why Gendo would murder his only son. In the beginning, she understood that the boy was a requirement, a necessity to the operation against the Angels. But over time, it became apparent that Shinji was more than that. Except that he didn't want to be involved in what NERV and his father were doing, and for different, personal reasons, such as the inability to form a bond with the commander, as he was just treated as an expendable asset…that decided not too long ago that he was ready to be expended from NERV. If this was what he thought of every pilot for the Evas, Rei had to consider that Gendo was no better than the Angels that were trying to destroy the human race.
Pulse! Tenseiga made that strange feeling again.
Misato felt a feeling of dread climb down her spine and in her heart. She hated it every time she sent the children out to face the Angels in the Evas, but this was just worse because of who they were facing. Her boss just murdered his own child in front of them, and not because of the Angels or his refusal to pilot the Eva again, but out of sheer hatred towards him. If she could shoot him dead in his face, she would've if it brought Shinji back to life.
"Stupid brat," they heard Gendo say to them, referring to Shinji, walking closer to where they stood. "He never knew his limits."
He raised his swords up, prepared to kill the rest of them before moving on. Until the next thing he became aware of…
"Aaurgh!" He grunted as something flew past him, staggering as he regained his footing. "What was that?! What did you do?!"
He was assuming that one of them did something to try and harm him.
"Wasn't us," Asuka stated truthfully.
"Which one of you tried to harm me?! Was it you (he pointed Tōkijin to Misato)?!"
"No," Misato claimed.
"None of us did anything!" Rōyakan stated to him.
"Oh, really? None of you did anything? Well, if none of you did anything, then what the Hell tried to shove me?!"
Burst! Something covered in dirt emerged from the ground in front of them.
It was a woman, ragged and corpse-like. She looked at Gendo and snarled.
"Aaah!" She yelled and charged towards him, going through him like a breeze blowing past a tree. "Aaah!"
He staggered again, regaining his footing.
"What was that?!" Misato asked Rōyakan.
"A dead soul trapped down here," he answered; he had seen the souls of humans and demons condemned to serve eternity down here for generations, all longing for some kind of hope to be offered to them. "Where there's one, you often find a horde of them."
Suddenly, emerging from the hole behind them, scores of dead people and demons flew into the air and charged towards Gendo, knocking him around or grabbing onto him from whatever angle they could.
"Aaurgh! Damn you! Get your filthy souls off me!" He groaned as he swung his swords at the dead spirits, watching as the blades just passed right through them. "Aaaaurgh!"
One soul flew right through Rei as she had her left hand on the hilt of Tenseiga, and she saw something flash before her eyes. It was a recent memory of life on the streets of Tokyo-3, a woman and her husband just walking down the streets, minding their own business. The woman was happy because her mother, who was in the hospital a while back, was slowly dying of cancer, but then made a miraculous recovery and was back home with them. And then, she saw Gendo and a horde of dead people, attacking other people, including she and her husband. She had felt cheated, robbed of her life, of her future, and for the child she had been carrying inside herself because of the cruel actions of this wicked man that chose to kill her.
Another soul flew through her as she held onto the sword, and she saw their most recent memory, as well. It was a little boy, lost and looking for his mother, caught by Gendo…and sliced in half by him as he screamed his final scream for help.
Pulse! Tenseiga reacted again.
Asuka went over and took Rei's hand off the sword hilt, pulling it up from the ground, just as a soul flew into her, and she saw their last memory before they had been killed.
All of these people were from the city, she thought, looking at Tenseiga's blade aglow.
"Tenseiga's not really a sword meant to harm the living," Shinji had once told her. "It's meant to heal the wounded, restore life to the dead, hope to those in despair. A sword that sanctifies the damned, if you will. Yeah. That's one way to put it. It sanctifies."
You all want to be saved, she realized the reason behind the spiritual attack on Gendo by the dead souls; they were all condemned here because he killed them, longing for hope, for light in this dark place.
Pulse! Tenseiga reacted again.
She raised the sword up and swung it in front of herself!
"Aaaurgh!" She yelled, releasing a large burst of light that enveloped everything.
When the light faded, Misato looked around and saw the dead spirits had been removed, leaving momentarily specks of light that faded from sight. She saw Gendo looking like he had been mildly burned by light.
"Do you really think that just because you purify their souls and send them back to Earth, this changes anything?" He demanded to know as he approached them, Sō'unga and Tōkijin aglow with demonic energy. "Even if you send them back there, I'll just kill them again! And again…and again…and again! It's endless! Nothing you do will change anything!"
Misato, Asuka and Rei backed away as Gendo was within the minimum distance to use his swords on them.
"Everyone always getting in my way," he uttered, raising up Sō'unga over his head. "All of you have no right to oppose me!"
He brought his sword down on them.
CLASH! Sō'unga was forced to cross paths…with a version of Tessaiga made of diamond…held up by Shinji, who looked good as new.
"Father," he said to Gendo, pulling back his left arm to summon Tenseiga to him, "you need to go to Hell. Permanently."
Tenseiga flew out of Asuka's hands and into Shinji's left hand, and he used both swords to push his father back almost thirty feet!
-x-
He had never known what it felt like to die, but he knew how it felt to lose someone. He had experienced it twice in his life, when he saw his mother choose to be consumed by the Eva…and when his father chose to sacrifice Toji in order to defeat the Angel possessing Unit-03. But this time, Shinji did know how it felt to lose his own life against his will. It was…faster than falling asleep…but it also felt like…falling down…and fading away, forgetting about everything he knew, loved or loathed.
He saw only darkness for a time, accompanied by the pallbearer demons that he saw each time he used Tenseiga to revive and heal the dead or dying. They were there to take him wherever he was condemned to go on to, but then he was bathed in light, among with countless other souls around him, lost in a whirlwind of sorrow, and the breath of life was restored to him, just as he had restored it to Toji and several others. Somehow, Tenseiga had been used by someone besides Shinji, someone who had no personal motive or anything to gain, and revived him from death. His soul, no longer forfeit, and his injuries fully mended.
"How is this possible?!" Gendo demanded. "I killed you!"
"Yeah, you did," Shinji responded. "Kindness of heart is what allows one to wield Tenseiga to restore life to the dead, hope to those wallowing in despair. And what do you know? I may not be the only one alive able to hold the sword that embodies the heavens after all."
He's stronger than anticipated, thought Sō'unga, actually concerned now. He has conviction similar to the Great Dog Demon when he was alive.
Then, holding the two swords in his hands, Shinji glowed an intense aura of purple light. He was a completely different person in a different situation. He looked at his father with silent rage towards his cruelty and knew that there was only one way this was going to end. One of them would have to pay the ultimate price.
"I killed you once," Gendo told him, "and I'll kill you again."
"You will try to," Shinji retorted, "and I stress on 'try' because there's only uncertainty in this case. You can't predict the future any more than some other person could. Look around us, too. This is Hell. We're literally in a vast, overcrowded cemetery for the damned."
Gendo did look around them and knew Shinji was right about their current setting. There was rubble and parched soil layered around for a coffin plot and desolate buildings in the background for a tombstone. All that was missing was a dead body for the figurative and literal grave. Or rather, several dead bodies…because he needed to get rid of any witnesses…and those that stood by the boy and supported his decisions.
Betrayal. There was nothing but betrayal from all of these expendable pawns that turned against him in his agenda to reclaim what was taken from him. Everyone that could no longer be manipulated had to be eliminated from existence so that he could progress with his agenda. Those that persisted would know only the dark fate that awaited them.
"I'll bury you," he told Shinji. "I'll bury all of you!"
Shinji crossed his two swords, Tessaiga in front of Tenseiga, and glared at his father.
"Let's end this," he replied.
To be continued…
A/N: What did you think of this chapter? I was impressed with how it turned out, though I didn't really plan of that happening to Shinji, but then I realized that he was in a bind that couldn't be remedied through medical means in such a short time. As for Gendo, he has become paranoid, but that was always there; his inability to trust in others because he hates being disagreed with is a sign of how pathetic he truly is to want to be the one to decide all things. Stay sane, stay healthy and stay alive out there in the insane world we live in due to this unthinking and unfeeling plague we're facing day after day.