Creation began on 04-24-22

Creation ended on 08-06-23

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Talismans: Self-Development

"…So, this is the place?" Juggernaut asked Cobra Moss as both men stood outside a building within Tokyo-2; they had been guided there by Shinji's astral form, relying on him to locate where Shendu currently resides.

"Yeah, this is it," Juggernaut answered. "But is he still there?"

They looked to their sides and noticed how empty the streets were, while at the same time looking out for Shinji's astral body, which then flew out of the building to float in front of them.

Yeah, he's still in there, he told them. It doesn't look like he's going anywhere anytime soon.

"Great. Now, we just need to get everything prepared in order to do away with the matter," said Cobra Moss. "Until then, we'll keep our distance."

"That is about all we can do for now," Juggernaut replies as they turn away to leave. "This is a grace period, a time for self-development."

Shinji's astral body turned to face the building and sighs as he has one other place to go to before returning to his body.

Why is there a feeling of disgust I can't seem to shake off, even when I'm in this state of being? He wonders as he flies off to Tokyo-3.

-x-

"…Are they still out there?" Sheegwa asks Desdemona as the woman looks outside the shop, seeing men in suits sitting inside a car parked across the street.

"Yep," Desdemona answers her. "They look like the guys that Juggernaut says he busted for trying to get into Shinji's apartment when he discovered that man had sent them over to get him. What did Shinji say they were called? Section Nine?"

"Section Two. Might as well call them the Men in Black…because that's what they are."

Soon, they saw Hideaki Katsuragi, who had left to perform a grocery errand for the shop, returning from up the street, and he noticed the car with the suits inside…and walked across the street to get back to the shop. He opened the door and stepped in, seeing the ladies with stern looks on their faces.

"I know NERV when I see its personnel," he sighs. "They're not even trying to hide."

"What do they want?" Sheegwa questions.

"It's what Gendo wants. And what he wants is Shinji, despite being aware that he has severed his ties with him."

"I'm proud that Shinji turned away from the Ikaris," went Serpentina as she sat at the register, "but that guy he rejected…has no respect for boundaries or the power of free will and alternative choice-making. Is he unable to accept what currently is over what formerly was?"

Hideaki looks out the windows at the car with the suits and then back to the girl, sighs and responds, "Anyone that can't accept one's choices or even the fact that they don't see eye-to-eye with someone else will do whatever to whoever if they feel they have been disrespected by or something of the sort."

"And this guy feels that Shinji disrespected him? Simply by renouncing his family name and cutting off his ties with him?" Desdemona questions. "In the end, it was Shinji's choice to make…and we supported his decision to make it."

"I supported his decision, too," Hideaki expresses; it was no point to try and see if Gendo was just behaving the way he did because of the ravages of Second Impact, because his relationship with his only son was practically nonexistent. "Gendo is more than likely doing what he's doing because of one of the more-negative qualities of people's character."

"Which is?" The ladies ask him.

"Spite," he answers. "He wants to hurt his son out of spite."

-x-

"…Still, it bothers you a lot, doesn't it?" A man, in his early-sixties, with receding gray hair and gold eyes, asked Auntie as they were playing chess in a park. "The Demon Sorcerers, this Gendo Ikari and his paramilitary agency. It's bothering you more than you'd like for it to bother someone else instead…doesn't it all?"

"You know it does," Auntie responds, taking away a pawn from his side of the board.

"Do you still find yourself waking at night, worried about your kids?"

"You know that I do."

"And how do you react to that each time?"

"The same as always: I think of the pity I would feel towards that poor soul that comes to my shop…looking for trouble."

"And…it looks like you've beaten me…again."

Auntie looks at the remaining chess pieces on the board…and realizes that her opponent had no openings left to counter her, earning her the game's outcome.

"It would appear that I have beaten you…again."

"Same time tomorrow?"

"I'll be here."

Auntie got up and bowed to the man before turning away to leave him where he sat. The man she played against was just a former employee who worked at her shop for seven years before he left Ōta, and he returned just three years ago from living on Hokkaido. He didn't want to go into retirement unless he suffered a debilitating injury that hindered his performance…and he ended up in a boating accident that hobbled his right leg, forcing him into retirement. There was always the things that people with nothing else to do when in retirement that just made him feel like there was nothing left to live for…except for these frequent games of chess.

"Just so that you know," Auntie tells him before leaving, "should the time ever come where either I or my kids require additional assistance from anyone, you're among those I would seek aid from, retired or not."

"Many thanks, Auntie. Many thanks."

-x-

Shinji found this bothersome, but the sight of a sleeping Misato had an advantage while he was in astral form. While unseen and unheard by those without heightened spiritual awareness or clarity, the ability to enter a person's dreams was among the benefits of the Sheep Talisman that he frequently put to use when he needed to distribute information to specific people. He just wished the woman had proper sense when it came to sleeping because she was indecent. While he understood that it was a habit of certain people to sleep half-naked or completely naked, it made him uncomfortable because it was a private habit that he didn't need on his conscious like many other things he learned from his nights wandering around in astral form.

Flash! Upon entering the woman's head, he found her dream world was an echo of whatever Hell on Earth she had experienced in the past.

At least when it came to the background.

"Jeez, this is depressing," he utters as he wanders the hellish terrain. "Misato Katsuragi! Misato Katsuragi! Where are you?!"

"Shinji?" He hears her voice as she appears from behind the ruins of a building next to a power line, looking like a teenage version of herself dressed in snow gear, holding onto her side with her right hand. "What are you doing here?"

"Other than spying on NERV and making sure that bastard can't do anything stupid, keeping you up to date on what's going on."

"He doesn't know about the talismans or the employees your boss has or anything supernatural."

"Let him find out about them on his own. There's a building in Tokyo-2 housing one of the Demon Sorcerers that want to take control of the world, but he's currently impeded by the fact that he needs the talismans that I'm currently working to acquire, leaving him dependent on lackeys, people motivated by whatever to serve him, but even they're incompetent. We're working on a plan to get rid of them. Just can't risk that bastard trying to stir trouble because he can't have his way."

"And you want me to keep tabs on him?"

"No. When I'm not in my body, I'm either here in the realm of dreams or at NERV HQ watching him without actually being there for him or anyone else to see. If I didn't have much to worry about, I'd be like this all the time."

"All the time? You can't possibly be serious. You would actually spend all your time in that state, unseen and unheard by everyone that wasn't like Auntie and the others that could see and hear you?"

"It's one way to avoid facing people you don't like."

"You can't avoid people forever, Shinji."

"I can if I try to. Mostly just my relatives, because we're not exactly on speaking terms."

Misato could see that Shinji was willing to endure being in astral projection if it meant being away from the Ikaris, but she couldn't imagine anyone else willing to endure this form of isolation known only to those that could trespass upon such unusual territory.

"What if someone else tries to get in your way?" She asks him.

"There will be repercussions," he tells her. "Most of them will be likely minor, if at all possible, but some of them will be severe if absolutely necessary."

"You're taking this seriously?"

"Demon Sorcerers, NERV, anyone that dares to try and profit from this turn of events in a bad way that endangers good people must be put in their place. Anyone that can contribute to a benevolent cause can serve a greater purpose than what was expected of them to begin with, even those that do very little, like providing information…or just trying to do something…as simple and reassuring…as letting someone else know that the world isn't going to end when they think it is."

Misato got the impression that Shinji was referring to himself in the way of someone doing very little due to his major use of the Sheep Talisman to wander about in astral form. But if she was being honest, the mere fact that he could eavesdrop on anyone anywhere without any fear of being seen or heard made him a reliable spy if he knew who to eavesdrop on. And if NERV ever knew the truth about the talismans, Gendo would likely go after them in force, coveting the very items that Shinji was working to claim for himself, that a demon was after to regain power. That would've been a power struggle not so different from any other conflict between different groups with different views or goals.

"So…just who are you now?" She asks him, reminding them both that his identity had been altered by his name change, his renouncement of the Ikari name that was now no more than dead weight to the young man.

"It's Omamori now," Shinji reveals to her.

"Why that name?"

"Personally…it was the Sheep Talisman that gave me a way to escape from my past. Some could say that I'm like the sheep, docile and unlikely to rebel…but I can be just like a wolf in sheep's clothing: You never know what I'm going to do because I won't do what you tell me to."

"A wolf in sheep's clothing, huh? Like that night you were able to get away from NERV and return to your pack?"

"The safest place to be is among those you trust, and I trust them."

"Yeah, I can see why you would."

"Tell me… Do you believe in redemption? Do you believe in second chances for those that seek to become better than they could've been before?"

"I want to believe."

"Then you should start somewhere with someone you believe can become better than they have ever been. See you around sometime."

Gasp! Misato awoke and was back in her room covered in perspiration.

"Well, Mr. Omamori, you certainly know how to make rude wake-up calls," she sighs as she gets up from her bed.

-x-

Flash! Tchang Zu emerged from the electricity in the lighting used to illuminate the chamber in Terminal Dogma…and with him was Tso Lan, who appeared slightly disoriented.

"I…did not enjoy that, Tchang Zu," Tso Lan told the Thunder Demon.

"It's gets easier after four more times," he responds to the Moon Demon, and they see the decapitated body of Lilith. "The sooner we dispose of her, the better."

"Just standing in front of her makes my bones ache with disgust."

"Lilith has always had a negative reaction upon us. Whenever you're ready."

"You will not interfere with our plans, Lilith!"

-x-

Shinji flew into Gendo's office and found the despicable man once again being less than intimate with Ritsuko Akagi, much to his disgust.

Kami, I feel like I need to vomit, he thought as he saw the woman caress his left shoulder, and then turned away to go through a wall. How sick do these people have to be to be considered depraved freaks?

He had his personal thoughts of exposing the two, but didn't think anyone would take it serious; there were plenty of sexual deviants and adulterers in the world that nobody really gave a damn about, so his opinions and beliefs would be lost in the sea of beliefs. But he'd know, just as he knew other things that people did behind closed doors and windows in the darkness…and he would always have something to hold on others like a rainy day fund of sorts. This was how he got his independence from his aunt and uncle shortly after he received the Sheep Talisman…and how he maintained it upon living on his own. Upon flying into the chamber where two of the Evas were housed, he noticed the purple Eva he despised more than he thought he could despise it…and then had an idea that really disgusted him as much as NERV's purpose disgusted. Because he was in astral form, he was afforded the opportunity to see what made the Evangelion tick…if it even could.

"The synthetic life form codenamed Evangelion Unit-01," he remembers Ritsuko explaining to him the so-called purpose of the purple behemoth.

A synthetic organism, something created by people, and yet she stated that it was biomechanical, meaning it has some biological properties integrated with machine parts, he thought as he phased into the Eva. Why build such a thing? Why…and keep it out of the public's eye? If this had been Pacific Rim or some other film, the world would know everything about these creatures because there are no secrets hidden that can hurt the masses. What in the name of…

In front of him, as if dwelling within a pocket realm of solitude, was a woman that invoked the scientist character that he wasn't a big fan of. She was dressed in a white lab coat, had a pink blouse and dark blue skirt. Her head had a triangular shape with her face seeming attractive, but Shinji got a disturbing vibe from her; this was unusual, as he only got vibes of that sort when he met people that he felt were less than honest, moral or were hiding things from him that he probably felt worried for being the kind of secrets that carried a high cost. And she turned to face him, making it clear that she saw him.

"Hello, Shinji," she greeted him, but Shinji felt his disturbing vibe of her become amplified; there was something clearly off with this woman.

"That woman," they both heard a different voice utter, and Shinji turned around to see someone else in this strange realm with them, "is not worth following."

The second person looked like…Shinji, except he was…withered…and bitter, with his hair prematurely white, his eyes red and his skin around them adorned with premature wrinkles, as if he had aged considerably terrible for a fourteen-year-old.

"She's a liar and a cheat!" The boy yelled, and Shinji's vibe got worse. "She betrays everyone around her, and she'll do the same to you if you let her get close!"

Shinji turned back to face the woman, who seemed uneasy by the accusations of this other boy. Not only that, but his vibe was just getting him more uneasy around her. If she was hiding something, it was understood by the aged boy…but not him.

"Who is she?" He asked the other boy. "What did she do to you?"

"Shinji," the woman spoke up.

"She used me to destroy the world I resided and then abandoned me," he expressed, his face getting deteriorated further. "Don't believe anything she says. Her beliefs are hollow and bring nothing but grief…and a desire for revenge."

Shinji turned back to face the woman.

"And who is she?" He wanted to know.

"She's the one who doesn't deserve the title, status, the very designation of the very blessing women of her nature exploit for the most selfish of reasons. She didn't deserve me…and she doesn't deserve you! She never will!"

It was the way he was saying what he said, the malice, the hate…and the heartache. It made Shinji's vibe feel like an explosion occurring within his heart. He could hear a faint scream in the back of his mind, one that sounded like his own, but full of insanity and hurt. For a second, just a brief moment lost in the abyss of perception, he saw himself, sitting inside the Eva, floating in a ravaged land, going crazy from the horrid sight of death and destruction happening around him.

"Mother," he utters in realization…and his vibe became the very thing that made him realize that entering the Eva…was just another bad choice in his history of bad choices that related to the Ikari family. "I'm outta here."

"Shinji," the woman, his mother, spoke up, trying to get near him.

"No," he gestured for her to stay away as he backed away. "Stay away from me. Stay away."

He forced his way out of the Eva and escaped the Geo-Front, returning to his body. He wanted to forget about her and the other Shinji. But they were now etched into his mind that he couldn't get rid of them. Somehow, he stumbled upon something that was not only unethically cruel…but was capable of causing unforgivable suffering to others that were left enraged and vengeful because of the people that inflicted these grievous wounds that wouldn't heal. And that other Shinji, he was someone he didn't know whether to fear, condemn…or pity because of whatever misfortunes of fate befell him…and were still causing him pain.

"Gah!" He awoke from his coma-like state upon returning to his body. "Those people are devious sons of bitches!"

"Whoa!" Hideaki gasped upon hearing him revive. "What'd you see out there to make you say what you just said?"

Shinji calmed himself and gathered his composure before speaking again.

"I went inside Evangelion Unit-01…and saw two people that were just as messed up as my father and other relatives," he revealed.

"What do you mean?"

"Inside Unit-01…was my mother who was sharing space with someone that looked like me…but was all twisted, inside and outside. He looked like he aged prematurely, his hair white and his face wrinkled, eyes red like he hadn't slept in days, and his voice full of hatred towards her. All the time, I was getting a bad vibe from the woman."

"Gendo mentioned wanting to get married to a woman he met during his university days. Yui Ikari. I never met her, but I got the impression that she had to be either crazy to want to spend her life with someone like him…or their relationship was arranged from the get-go."

"Well, seeing as I don't get along with any of my relatives, let alone know all of them, I'm inclined to think that she was crazy…and is still crazy…but then I saw that other guy that looked like me…and he didn't look crazy, just…tired and alone, his heart full of rage that was directed towards her."

"You just reminded me of a nightmare I had a few years ago about a different possibility I kept reflecting upon each day. I keep going back to the day Second Impact happened, and every time I save Misato, I die, but each time that happens, something else happens that shouldn't have. Either I actually survive like right now…or I wind up someplace I wish I wasn't, that makes no sense at all. Maybe there is such a thing as a multiverse, which is something we know very little of. If so, we're likely just gazing into other lifetimes, other possibilities that only exist in the realm of dreams."

"Well, if that was a version of myself from another universe, I don't think I want to know what my mother did to him in that universe to make him the way that he was when I saw him."

"I don't blame you for saying that. If I found out I was dead in any other universe, I wouldn't want to know how or why."

"My father's a sex fiend, my mother's a monster, my relatives are cold strangers I couldn't live with without there being an issue that they had against me for simply existing. I may have severed my ties with those people, but I can't erase my relation to them…and it's a chain that will follow me to the grave so long as they exist."

Suddenly, the room shook a little, for three seconds, before stopping, surprising them a little.

"What the Hell was that?" Shinji questions.

"A tremor?" Hideaki suggests.

-x-

NERV hadn't expected anything of this sort before! They had prepared to face the Angels should they appear, but they didn't expect to be at the mercy of the Demon Sorcerers! And worse was that they weren't here for them, but for Lilith, who they disposed of in grim fashion! They blew a large hole through the Geo-Front, took up the decapitated body of Lilith, displayed her in the sky…and one of them used their powers to rip her body to shreds before scattering them across the air where the other one used their powers to incinerate the remains!

Gendo looked at the two demons and couldn't believe that they were able to infiltrate the base and dispose of Lilith.

"Let this be a warning lesson to you, humans," expressed Tso Lan to the personnel as he and Tchang Zu levitated in the air of the Geo-Front. "We don't make idle threats…and this world belongs to us. You can either serve its new masters…or die miserable deaths."

"Your wretched abominations are useless against us," Tchang Zu added. "We are beyond you in every way. Serve us or die."

Then, they left the Geo-Front in a flash of light, leaving the damaged base in further disrepair.

"We have problems," went Shigeru.

"They just showed up under our noses," added Hyuga, "and we didn't know about them until after they made their presence known. And that creature from Terminal Dogma… They ripped it to pieces like it was made of paper."

"They're not taking any chances with anything that can be a threat to them," said Maya.

But Gendo, realizing that what he and SEELE had desired ever since before Second Impact occurred was now for naught, swore revenge against these beings that claimed control over the world. He swore revenge against them, against his son and the people he worked with and for, and he wanted to make them pay dearly.

Fuyutsuki wasn't sure if this crippling act should make him feel either concerned or relieved. This, combined with the fact that the planet was restored to its proper axis and the Antarctic was restored…would be seen as a blessing to some and a nightmare to others because of how it was achieved and by who. But no Lilith meant no Human Instrumentality Project, which meant no end of the world, by either human beings or Angels. In many ways, this spared the children born after Second Impact the obligation of piloting the Evas. Not that one of them known by NERV was going to do so willingly, anyway.

-x-

It was only because some kids with cameras on their phones and camcorders were crazy enough to film some of what happened in Tokyo-3…and later posting it on their social media accounts and onto the internet for the world to see and hear. This made the news for hours as everyone in the shop watched on the television and learned on their phones and tablets.

"The Demon Sorcerers made another bold move on the world," Auntie states as she picks up her tea cup for the fifth time.

"I hope Juggernaut and Cobra Moss are doing okay in Tokyo-2," Dragon expresses as he watches the moment where the colossal being that had been ripped from the underground paramilitary facility was ripped to shreds by the Moon Demon.

"I'll go check on them," said Shinji, wondering what his father was going to do now that this creature he saw when he was down in the Geo-Front was no more.

"You should eat something first," Desdemona suggests to him as she faces him. "You may not be powerhouse, but you still matter."

"They destroyed Lilith," went Drago, "because they knew she would be exploited by humans who desired to replace their gods with themselves."

"That's just crazy," Sheegwa utters. "People can't do that. They shouldn't be allowed to do that. It's like trying to convince yourself that these people you never see or hear don't exist so they shouldn't be believed in."

"I'm not human…but I can accept that there are deities in the world and that they are the benevolent force that keeps order to the chaos that comes with existence."

"Do you…practice a form of religion, Drago," Shinji asks.

"No. Peace is a religion of its own, though."

"Yeah, that's true."

"As much as I feel that we should worry about this," said Bouncer, "I don't feel all that bad for NERV. If they were holding something dangerous and exploiting it, then the Demon Sorcerers did us all a favor by getting rid of it."

"Yeah," added Serpentina. "In the end, certain groups will do things that, in some way or another, benefit another group that's also a foe. It's a game of attrition between opposing factions, each one trying to outdo or outlast the others so that they're the last ones standing."

"What are the chances that the Demon Sorcerers will wait for someone else to make a move against them, Drago?" Hideaki asks.

"Unlike my father, the other seven have likely lived hidden among people ever since we ended up in this world, so they could have the patience of Job to wait for anyone to do something, anything, to incite them into doing something to ruin their lives further. Anyone that tries to refuse them is an obstacle that needs to be dealt with severely."

"Well, we're going to be doing more than refusing them," said Auntie, finishing her tea. "Still, I must ask you, Drago: Can you live with what happens to the Demon Sorcerers when we banish them back to their prison?"

Drago looked at her and sighs.

"I'm a Demon Sorcerer…but I was never one of them…and never will be," he expresses. "When they get banished, that is on them. I'm no longer interested or obsessed with any desires of control over the world or enslaving humanity. Peace is all I want after this."

Shinji couldn't help but smile at Drago's simple desire. A demon that wanted peace was a demon that was an ally against an octet of demons that wanted to rule the world.

To be continued…

A/N: Well, now Lilith is gone, permanently screwing any plans for the Human Instrumentality Project, but that doesn't stop Gendo and SEELE yet. And Shinji has glimpsed into the multiverse of Evangelion and saw his primordial self, who still has a bone to pick/axe to grind with his mother, but rather than encourage him to reject his own mother, he finds himself disgusted with his parents further due to learning that his mother is in the Eva…and wants nothing to do with her, either. Drago had to further iterate that while he is related to the Demon Sorcerers, he is not affiliated with them on any level, and therefore has no reason to care about them. There was a lot of self-development here, don't you think?