Creation began on 04-07-23

Creation ended on 04-19-23

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Evangelion: The Darkest of Ambitions

A/N: There will always be those that want for reasons far worse than they claim.

The only thing Gendo found to be good about the Internet was that some people were rational enough to put files on there that others could look at, including video posts that were taken years ago before discs were used to store digitized footage. This allowed him to search for anything relating to the word he used: Cenobites. But all he found were these video posts, some of which were over twenty years old.

"These puzzle boxes…are some sort of connection between the people that come to you through them…and this god that they worship," a video recording of a man told in front of a camera. "Some of these boxes are able to grant you an audience with their god, but only if you pay a price first."

"And what is the price for an audience with their god? With this…Leviathan?" The person that was filming the session asked.

"Blood and pain from others if you're fortunate enough to avoid offering yourself. Some of these boxes are able to cut you if you're careless enough trying to solve one."

"Did something else happen when you had one of these boxes?"

"Yes. After I made my choice to offer up people I didn't care about, I received my audience with Leviathan…and claimed my ultimate desire. I chose Lore. I chose…knowledge. But the Cenobites… Their tastes, however extreme and beyond our comprehensions…were not what I had expected when they gave me what I asked for. My mind was expanded beyond my limits. Answers came faster before the questions could even be asked. I suddenly knew things I wish I didn't know…and the pain that comes with this knowledge is the revelation that such things are inevitable for some…and preventable for others."

"You desired…knowledge?"

"And it was a heavy price in the end. For some, the gifts offered by the Cenobites are everything one can desire and more…and for others, they are the stuff of nightmares. I have lost my peace of mind because of my prize…and the only way to relieve myself of it…is just as worse as my initial audience with Leviathan."

"Can you elaborate?"

"There's no turning back once a threshold has been crossed. And with the gifts the Cenobites offer, once they have been given, they cannot be properly disposed of or removed by you. However, they allow for exchanges to be made."

"They allow exchanges? Meaning, you could return your gift of knowledge…for something else from them instead? Is that what you mean?"

"Yes. But while such is possible, it requires a secondary audience, meaning five more sacrifices are required. The choice that allows for the least amount of suffering is Lament. There's still pain, but it's bitter and brief, something the Cenobites find not worth their time."

Gendo didn't believe in there being such a belief as bitter and brief suffering. However, if there was such a thing as a god that could grant one's ultimate desire for them at the cost of five lives, he could live with offering up five lives if it meant getting what he desired the most. But if he was to do that, he first needed a puzzle box. Correction, he needed the puzzle box that Fuyutsuki currently had; if it was indeed one of these boxes associated with the Cenobites, he wanted it for his own purposes. And with access to and from the base now restricted, he could just take the box from the former teacher.

"Life, knowledge, love, sensation, power…and resurrection," he expresses as he vacates his office. If this Leviathan can revive people from the dead, there'd be no need for Human Instrumentality. And if it can grant power, all the more reason to sacrifice the unworthy.

-x-

An aerial lift was fortunate enough to be built down in Terminal Dogma, but something Maya found to be unusual because it looked as though it hadn't been used in years, despite still functioning properly. As she and Fuyutsuki were being lifted off the ground up into the air to where Lilith's waist was, the latter was preparing the blade for stabbing the being.

"Are you sure about this?" She asked him.

"No," he answered her, "but who's gonna care if the world does end because they decided not to dispose of this being to ensure that it didn't to begin with?"

Once the aerial was close enough to Lilith, Fuyutsuki sighs and thrust the box's blade into the soft flesh of the colossal being. He then pulls it away as the blood was absorbed into the box's recesses and the blade retracted.

"Okay, Ibuki, let's get this back onto the ground."

Maya presses the button to lower them back to the ground. The box began to change shape again; it was still elongated in its appearance, but it began to resemble the first configuration, only rectangular instead of a cube. From the darkness above them, large chains reached out to pierce the crucified behemoth. Soon after, Lilith was forcibly ripped from the red metal cross and taken into the darkness, never to be seen again; the Cenobites had claimed their fourth victim.

"Four down," Maya says, "one in hand…and one more to go."

"And this is the fifth configuration," Fuyutsuki adds, holding the box. "The Lazarus Configuration. Resurrection. Once this is solved, it will become the sixth and final configuration and an audience with Leviathan will be granted."

Except now, it raised the question that both were wondering how to answer: Who would be the last sacrifice for the Cenobites before they could obtain their audience? Now that Lilith was taken, they had run out of creatures they could offer up in place of actual people…unless there was another Angel laying around somewhere for them to dispose of. As Fuyutsuki put the box in his bag, they vacated Terminal Dogma; it wouldn't be long before anyone else that had access to this chamber discovered that Lilith was no longer in it and raise questions that couldn't be answered just yet…or never. But nobody ever did say that another Angel wouldn't show up and end up in a situation where they could be potentially offered to the Cenobites.

Without Lilith, there can be no forbidden union between her and Adam, Fuyutsuki thinks as they enter the elevator. If I gave them Adam, would they do the forbidden union…or would they torment them with keeping them separate from each other?

He wasn't sure…and wasn't sure that he wanted to know. If he could just keep the world from ending, he was sure that he could live with the outcome…along with knowing what happened to Shinji after he received his prize from the Cenobites and Leviathan.

-x-

It continued to surprise Ritsuko to no end of the extremes in which the Cenobites received one new victim after another in this vast and endless maze. Stumbling into a large chamber, the faux-blond discovered the body of none other than Lilith, laying against a wall, arms suspended in the arms by massive, hooked chains.

"How are these Angels getting sent here?" She wondered.

"Those marked by the box belong to us," she heard a new voice and turned to her right to see a dark-skinned being that appeared to be weeping because there were pins in their eyes. "Ours to release at any time we wish."

Seconds after, the being's arms split in two up to the elbow, causing Ritsuko to back away from them in fear.

"Release yourself," they told her as they approached her.

Ritsuko turned and ran, wanting to get as far away as possible from this being.

"Release yourself," their words reverberated through the halls of the Labyrinth.

-x-

"…You've been spending a lot of time with the sub-commander, Ibuki," Hyuga told Maya as they were in the cafeteria later that day, trying to get their minds off of whatever was going on."

"What's it to you?" She responded, miffed over how none of them could leave the base because the two Angels were gone. "It's just research."

"On what, exactly?" Shigeru asks her. "It doesn't seem like there's much to research about."

"Maybe find out what happened to the Third Child and why he went missing."

"What if he didn't go missing? What if he was killed by his aunt and uncle?" Hyuga suggested.

"That's ridiculous. Why kill a little boy?"

"Why does anyone kill anyone?" Shigeru questions. "I get that as long as there's no body, people looking for answers to why someone is missing act on the possibility that they're alive, but if there are no leads, no witnesses, no alibis, nobody even trying to actually find them, it's safe to assume that they're not going to find them, no matter how many years have gone by. Plus, Commander Ikari doesn't even seem to be the slightest bit concerned about his kid's whereabouts; he probably thinks he's dead, too."

Maya looked at him like a line had been crossed.

"We don't know that for sure," she told him.

"It's just a possibility."

"The world itself is a labyrinth."

"What does that mean?" Hyuga asks her.

"People go missing everyday, but sooner or later, they turn up elsewhere. Nobody stays missing forever…except the people that don't want to be found. Labyrinths didn't exist until we started building them and inspiring other people to wander around and get lost in them. Find your way out of the labyrinth, you claim your prize, whatever it may be. If the kid is alive out there, he's probably doing the same, exploring a maze, looking for a way out and looking for his prize."

"Wow. That's deep."

-x-

Fuyutsuki was uncomfortable, and this was the umpteenth time it was so. It was mainly because Gendo had asked him something that went against what he initially believed earlier on. The man he detested for personal reasons…had gone and asked for the puzzle box that was believed to be connected to his son's disappearance…and Fuyutsuki felt like it had nothing to do with understanding what happened to Shinji…but something else completely unrelated.

"Why do you want the box?" He asked him. "You weren't interested in it before. It makes no sense why you'd be interested in it now."

"Whosoever holds the box in its final form is granted an audience with some deity connected to it…and shall receive their ultimate desire from them," Gendo explains his reason for wanting the box. "Offer up the blood and suffering of five lives to these…Cenobites…and you get something you want back from their master. If this is true, then all it takes is for someone's pain and suffering to be offered up to them…and they return to you something you sought after for a long time, whether it's knowledge, power or someone who has been dead for a time."

But Fuyutsuki…wasn't convinced that Gendo's desire for the box was even benevolent. He unintentionally offered up Ritsuko to the Cenobites and was trying to correct his mistake, but Gendo…couldn't have been interested in trying to retrieve someone from the Cenobites as he was probably more interested in something he wanted, that he felt he was entitled to that the Cenobites could give him. And worse, if he gave him the box before he could find a suitable offering for the Cenobites to collect, there was a chance that he would try to make his and Maya's efforts to get Ritsuko back for nought.

"The box," Gendo ordered him.

"No, Ikari," he replied. "The box is more dangerous than you think you know. Even if you think you know what you want, you may not be able to accept what you get in the end."

"And what is it that you want with the box?"

"It's not about what I want. It's about what I need to undo."

"Undo?"

"Since you claim to know about the box now, then you should know that Dr. Akagi didn't run off earlier. She was helping me to research the box. I solved a part of it, and it produced a blade that I avoided being cut by. The Cenobites appeared to me and demanded an offering; if they couldn't have me, they wanted someone else. She cut herself accidentally with the blade…and they took her. They took her in place of me, and now she's in their realm, theirs to do with however they desire. But if I make four more offerings to them, I can get her back."

"The box only accepts offerings of blood and pain…and you're not desperate enough to offer up anyone to these people, even to save someone."

"Don't think you know anything about me, Ikari. You don't know what people will do when they're desperate for something or someone. You thought your son would come pilot the Eva when you needed him to, only he's missing…and I recently found out why he's missing."

"Is that so?"

"He found the puzzle box at some point in the past…and he claimed a prize from the Cenobites. He claimed his ultimate desire from them when they offered him anything he wanted. What do you think he chose in the end?"

Gendo's left eyes twitched.

"And you know what he chose to make him disappear?" He questions.

"Six configurations, six choices to choose from," Fuyutsuki explains. "Life, knowledge, love, sensation, resurrection, power. I can't say definitively, but it's likely your son chose Laudarant, the third configuration. He chose love."

"Then his choice carried consequences for the rest of us."

"No, Ikari. What he chose has nothing to do with any of us. He can't be expected to show up just because we're in a crisis that we can't deal with properly. He didn't know, so he's exempt from any blame. We knew…and you made a conscious decision not to tell him anything before he disappeared. You were probably part of the reason why he chose what he wanted from the Cenobites to begin with. But we don't know that for sure. Plus, what could you want from the Cenobites? What do you suppose they could offer you?"

"I know it was you and Lt. Ibuki that disposed of Lilith," Gendo reveals, and Fuyutsuki's eyes widen to the revelation. "You used the Angels in place of humans as offerings to these people…and that alone confirms that they work as substitutes. But there are no Angels left within the base, which leaves you with only one other alternative: People within the base, and every one of them is expendable when one desires something."

One more…and our god awaits, Fuyutsuki heard the voice of the pinheaded Cenobite in his head. Feed it. Their pain…their blood. Our god awaits you. You know what he can offer.

But the Lazarus Configuration had yet to be solved so that its blade was unleashed. Fortunately, he gave the box to Maya so that she would keep it safe in case someone tried to confiscate it from him. Now that Gendo wanted it, he felt it was the right choice.

"The box, Fuyutsuki," Gendo repeated.

"No," he replied. "You don't know the darkest truth to that box, Ikari. It may give you what you want, but what you get carries a price worse than the one you paid to get it. Every gift they offer is something they pervert in the end. Only those truly deprived of what they desire can receive what they want without pain and suffering; the Cenobites will not torture those that long for what they were denied. A man deprived of normal sensation can receive sensation from the Cenobites. A woman without any sense of knowledge can receive without suffering. Even if you want something from the Cenobites, I doubt you were deprived of anything your heart desires."

Gendo stood up from behind his desk…and raised his gun at Fuyutsuki.

"Hand over the box now, Fuyutsuki," he demanded, but Fuyutsuki refused to be intimidated.

Suddenly, the alarms went off.

Ring! Gendo's phone rang, forcing him to answer.

"What is it?" He asks.

"We have an Angel inbound!" A woman informs him. "ETA is twenty minutes from now!"

Fuyutsuki took advantage of his distraction and fled his office to find Maya; since Gendo wanted the box, they needed to finish the puzzle and get Ritsuko back. But Gendo, before he could even pull the trigger, had bigger problems with a new Angel appearing.

To be continued…

A/N: This is probably shorter than I anticipated due to an individual from the real world stressing me out the day I finished this chapter. It's a nightmare when people refuse to cooperate with you and you have to use force. But now Gendo wants the box because he wants his ultimate desire fulfilled by the Cenobites, but it won't go his way, no matter what he tries. And a new Angel approaches Tokyo-3. What could happen next?