Creation began on 04-04-22
Creation ended on 05-22-23
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Vengeance of the Seven: Just another false deity
Unit-01's core, exposed and vulnerable, was shattered by Shinji's wrath and Lust, all the while his pride watched without a trace of amusement. Because the woman within the Eva chose not to do anything, she brought her disgraceful downfall upon herself at the hands of her son's seven desires. Well, five of his seven desires, as his gluttony and sloth were protecting elsewhere within this soulless, underground facility. The Eva's artificial eyes glazed over, and Shinji's pride felt that the woman within the abomination was either dead…or nearing death…permanently.
"Good riddance, Mommy dearest," spoke Shinji's envy. "You didn't deserve your son then…and you never will deserve him ever again."
"The longing for actual bonds that don't feel fake," went his greed as he shed his dark-skinned form, reverting back to his previous self, "just another intolerable want from a heart made bitter against you and your partner for your selfish actions against him and everyone else that got in your way. But in the end, you were just as greedy, longing for what you didn't have, what you could never afford to even deserve. And now, you can long for all of what you want in Hell. Because you're not a good person. You're not a saint or martyr for anyone. You're not even a mother. You're just another dead person with twisted ambitions that don't deserve to be realized. You got greedy…and got nothing in the end."
Shinji's lust then took her kitten out of his pouch and held him in her arms.
"Who's my little guy, Sutego?" She asks the kitten. "That's right. You are."
"We should go now," Shinji's wrath suggested; he just didn't want to continue being in the presence of Unit-01 any longer. "If she's gone, then she's gone. No need to pity a false deity that never was. No need to shed tears for a woman that took motherhood for granted and treated it like a fringe benefit. No need."
"Got that right," his pride responds. "Let's go."
The five left out the chamber. Whatever thoughts they had about Yui Ikari died with the Eva she gave her life away to animate.
-x-
Everyone in the command center of Central Dogma were beyond shocked at the fact that pieces of the Third Child's soul up and damaged an Evangelion with little effort involved after murdering Gendo Ikari. Even Fuyutsuki was bothered by this turn of events.
Static! Several systems within the chamber experienced feedback for a few seconds before going back to normal, including the visual systems needed to target the Angels.
"Hey, new commander," they heard the voice of Shinji's pride say over the speakers, "are you listening? If you are, please speak up."
Fuyutsuki picked up a phone and replied, "I can hear you talking."
"That's good, sir. We've, more or less, done what we needed to do, so you can deal with the Angel if you can still do so. But since I don't really know you well enough to understand your intentions, I can only say that you follow morality and put an end to this. The two behind the madness their only son was tainted by have been dealt with severely, so there's no reason to continue down this despicable path that leads to nowhere good for anyone. Just end it all for good and let the sleeping dogs lie where they are."
"And what should happen if we can't?"
"How should I know the answer to that? With that bastard dead now, you're the one in charge. I'm just the pride and arrogance of a young man whose parents were arrogant than he…and they paid a price for all that they did and didn't do. Why must he care for what other people do when he never asked for any of this? Why must he condemned for the sins they created when he should be looked down upon for his own problems, not the problems of others? The sins of the parents are only for the parents. Now, we have washed our hands of their sins, leaving only those belonging to ourselves. Whatever sins you or anyone else have committed in your past are yours to deal with until you can't. But don't believe in salvation at the hands of another false deity. False gods promise nothing but pain and misery. This isn't a world for false gods made up by people looking to erase the past."
Fuyutsuki then hung up the phone.
"Sir?" Maya asks him.
Because Gendo was now dead, this left Fuyutsuki in charge of NERV. He could do what most thought was impossible to do and put an end to this all. But the question on everyone's mind was would he do so?
-x-
"Do you really think he's going to put an end to the recklessness of what's going on here?" Shinji's lust asked his pride as they stepped into an elevator with his greed, envy and wrath already inside.
"Whether he does or doesn't, it is not our concern, anymore," he tells her. "It never was our concern. We've done what we needed to do."
"True. But do you believe him to be a moral person?"
"Morality is the responsible choice of many people over many generations. Those that can't be moral are those that fail to be capable of change and acceptance."
The elevator went down to their next destination.
"He's finally free of them," said the jealous Shinji as he leaned against the wall inside the elevator on the right. "We did what nobody else could or would do for him."
"For you," corrected his pride. "For us. We are all Shinji Ikari. We, he, freed himself from their failure to do right by him. Their failure to do right by him, instead choosing to exploit him and never once stopping to even know him as he is, is what led to their deaths and condemnation. They brought their end upon themselves."
Ding. The elevator stopped and opened to reveal the lazy and gluttonous aspects of Shinji, moving a gurney carrying the comatose boy.
"You two look like you had some fun," said the avaricious Shinji to them.
"And you five look like you had more fun than we did!" The indolent Shinji whined…and then yawned. "I felt like we were doing the dirty work!"
"Protecting Shinji is a task we all take part in doing," said the furious Shinji to their sister sin. "You kept his body safe from harm. We dealt his parents their comeuppance for failing him. What would you have done in our place?"
"I would've yelled at the mother before slapping her until her face was bruised."
Bang! A gunshot was heard and the voracious Shinji fell to the floor, his right arm sporting a bloody hole.
"Aaaurgh!" He groaned.
"Hold on a minute," the indolent one told them, and then ran down the hall towards where the shot came. "Haaaurgh!"
The other five stepped out of the elevator and saw their sister jump kick a man in his face, knocking him down and tossing the gun from his hands.
"Sloth knocked you down!" She yelled at the man. "Now, Sloth gonna knock you out!"
"Ouch," went the lustful Shinji as she watched their sister sin start bashing the man's head. "She can really move when she wants to."
"Yes, she can," the arrogant Shinji agreed with her, and looked down at the comatose Shinji. "Can you still move, Gluttony?"
"I was shot in the arm, not in the legs," the gluttonous Shinji responds as he gets up to his feet.
"Say you're sorry!" They heard Sloth yell at the man that shot at them. "Say it! Say it! Say you're sorry!"
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" The man cried, his face bruised and bloody. "I'm sorry!"
"And…I win!" She cheered as she got off of him. "Shinji's laziness, thirty points! Man that shot his gluttony, nothing! Whoo!"
"Why does she get to be cheerful?" Shinji's jealousy questions.
"Mew," went Sutego as Shinji's lust placed him back inside his pouch.
-x-
With the targeting systems back online, Fuyutsuki ordered the First and Second Children back into service to deal with the Angel. It was probably not the most preferred choice, but they needed to protect the city above for the people to return to.
"What was the status of Unit-01?" He asks Misato when she returned to the chamber.
"Its core damaged beyond repair," she tells him, "along with most of its upper torso and head. Commander Ikari was also…"
"We all heard," went Ritsuko to her. "Killed by his own son. That's a hard way to go out."
"No," Misato responds, "it wasn't Shinji that killed him. It was his vengeance separated from his body, enabled to act out, unbound by his restraint or anyone else keeping him in check. Wrath means vengeance. Vengeance, fury, rage. The one holding that rage back was his pride, his arrogance, and when Ikari finally revealed why he had Suzuhara killed, there was no longer a reason to keep the rage from acting out and taking vengeance. I just didn't expect Shinji to have that much rage towards his father to do…that."
"Out of all the Seven Deadly Sins," Fuyutsuki claims, "wrath is the deadliest one because those that embrace it are the ones that mean to harm others."
"Where are they now?"
"The trauma ward," went Hyuga.
Misato then took out the case that Shinji's sins took off Gendo and showed it to Fuyutsuki.
"We really need to dispose of this, sir," she tells him, revealing the Adam embryo.
"Ugh," Ritsuko reacts with disgust, even though she had already seen it before.
-x-
The Angel was really ugly, even from a distance. As Asuka took aim at it with the positron rifle, she had to wonder what, if anything within the realm of rational thought, could stop Shinji's seven desires from doing worse than what they had done before walking away. Was she afraid of them? She wouldn't deny that their capabilities left her disturbed by what could happen if they had decided to turn their attention towards her or anyone else.
Still, according only to his pride when he spoke to Misato, if Shinji had wanted her dead, his sins would've did away with her some time ago. The mere fact that she was still alive, able to think about anything at all, was only because of the likelihood that Shinji, even when separated into eight beings, one of which was a vegetable right now, had no desire whatsoever to dispose of her. She should've counted herself lucky that this might've been the case…except she didn't feel lucky. If anything, she felt concerned.
He kills his father, she thinks as the Angel is locked on, and then he destroys one of the Evas. He can't walk away from any of this, no matter what he says or does.
She made Unit-02 pull the trigger and release the energy round aimed towards the Angel floating in space.
-x-
"Are we ready?" Pride asks the other sins as they sat around the comatose Shinji on the floor of an empty room.
"I'm ready," said Envy.
"Just one more moment," went Lust as she sat down Sutego's pouch. "I hate saying good-bye to such a needy companion that eases my heart."
"Sis," went Sloth to her, "we're not going anywhere far. We'll still be around, so you'll still be there for your little boy."
"Mew," Sutego uttered as he laid within his pouch.
"All I know is that Shinji better do right by him," Lust tells them. "I don't care if we are each a part of him, I love Sutego and want to do right by him. It's the first time I ever openly admitted to loving someone…and nobody ever told Shinji that they loved him and meant it. It feels good to mean love to someone else…but it hurts when nobody means it to yourself."
"Yeah," says Wrath and Greed.
"Love and friendship are vital to any relationship that is necessary for development," went Gluttony, "but what happens when you're surrounded by people that can't even do you the necessary thing as show you love or friendship?"
"We don't need to worry about it now," Pride tells them and looks down at Shinji. "Shinji will know what to do when he wakes up. He'll know everything we've done…and move on from it."
"Okay," Lust utters. "Let's do this."
"Sins of Pride."
"Lust."
"Greed."
"Sloth."
"Gluttony."
"Envy."
"Wrath."
"Let the seven harmonize back into one!"
The seven incarnations of Shinji Ikari began to glow with colors corresponding to the sins they embodied in the order they were spoken: Yellow, purple, orange, blue, pink, green and red. Their bodies began to react to a strong breeze manifesting within the room. Lights swirled around them as they began to evaporate within the breeze.
"See you all on the other side," Wrath told them as he went away first.
"It was nice knowing each of you," Envy admits as he goes next.
"I really had a great time being alive for a change," Gluttony says as he is the third to go.
"Going away is…too much of an effort," Sloth whines as she's next in the septuplet order of sins to go, "but we can't sleep forever."
"All I want now," spoke Greed as he evaporated next, "is a future we can all be able to live and be happy."
"You're my anchor, Sutego!" Lust cries as she disappears after.
"Take care, Shinji," Pride expresses as he is the last to go. "Embrace who you are. Live on your terms now. It's all up to you."
As he faded away, the Purge of Seven glowed an intense light and faded away from sight, disappearing as the unconscious boy stirred from his coma.
"Mmm…" Shinji went as he came to and found himself in the empty room, looking over at the kitten in the pouch. "Su…Sutego."
He felt like he just awoken from an intense, vivid and emotional dream, but upon seeing the kitten, he realized something he wouldn't have been able to without some clarity. The Purge of Seven still hanging around his neck, the lingering feelings of hatred he had towards his parents no longer having any hold over him, or the exhilaration that he experienced doing everything he didn't think he could ever do because he didn't have much of a drive to do so. He carefully picked up Sutego's pouch and got off the floor. It had all felt like a dream, except that it hadn't been a dream. Not when he knew what had happened and why it happened, but he didn't let that bother him right now.
"Thank you," he praised his seven desires. "Thank you all."
To be continued…
A/N: Had to get back on this and update its chapters. What did you think so far? It's not over yet. There's still a little more to come, but now Shinji has to deal with what comes next.