Why are you here? Is it okay for you to be here?" Helel tempted.
"I don't know….that's what I've been trying to figure out ever since my brother died." Danya replied.
"Do you think you are worthy of attention? Of love? Of salvation?"
"If I wasn't worthy, I wouldn't even exist!"
"And your dear sweet Adeline? How can you forgive such a monster? How many lies do you think she told to you? A damsel faking her distress, backstabbing her prince charming."
Danya saw a wooden puppet on strings, closely resembling Adeline, bearing an unnatural, horrifying smile. Danya began to panic.
"I…don't know…I don't know…"
"All your life, you were nothing but a lab rat, sleepwalking through life, oblivious to the truth of your existence; less than human; a doll."
"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Danya shouted. Just then, a gun clicked, and a bullet pierced through the puppet, shattering the realm to reveal Danya's true memories flashing before him in an epileptic manner.
"Why would they do this to me…? I don't need this, I don't want this, I don't deserve this! I'm a good person!"
"Why are you trying so hard to be a good person?"
"Because I feel it is the only way people will ever truly see me for who I am, in spite of my flaws and shortcomings."
"It was a dilemma! Keep myself and risk losing human connection, or gain human connection and risk losing myself! I'd lose either way!"
"But you were never yourself at all…were you Danya?"
Danya saw himself in a fractured mirror, with Shinji's image split as well.
"I tried everything! I did every single thing by the book, and every single thing that I've been taught, and it never seemed to work! I didn't know who to trust! I was set up to fail in my youth!"
"No matter how hard you may try, everyone will only ever see you as they see fit! Why bother trying to be your own person if no one will see it? You will never prove anything to anyone! You were never a savior, you never were a good person!"
"I just wanted to be cured of my depression so badly, like others said it would, even if I had to put myself through more ceaseless agony to obtain it!"
THERE IS NO CURE
There, in an empty padded room; solitary confinement, Danya sat, strapped to himself, the words, "there is no cure" written all over the walls. Danya was defeated, he was at his absolute lowest, now all he could do was...nothing.
Shinji tried breaking through, but still couldn't. Nothing could...except...Misato's cross?
Asuka had tried many times to break through Danya's AT field, but with no success. She looked on as Danya and the Devil himself spoke. Looking at Shinji's cross, she got an idea... if that creature was the Devil, then maybe...
Asuka quickly walked over to the cross, taking it with Shinji. It was better to take action with the time they still had and apologize later than not do anything at all. Quickly she reeled her right arm back, the one holding the cross, and slammed it into the AT field, slowly beginning to pierce through it. Asuka put her other hand on the palm that was pressing against the divine barrier, applying more pressure as the AT field around her hand began to contort from the pressure. Asuka pressed as hard as she could, her teeth gritted and her eyes narrowed as she continued to press on.
"Maybe…maybe you're right." Danya said, emotionless, broken, and tattered.
"At last you come to face the error of your judgment." The Devil said, wearing the face of his fake little brother, sitting crossed legged with him.
"But I have to keep fighting, even when all is lost…I've come so far. Every sacrifice I've made cannot be all for nothing…"
"And yet here we are. Why keep fighting? The human race is nothing more than a vile parasitic cesspool of arrogance and hubris, all they have ever done to you is use you. They must be brought to knee. What has God ever done to bring that to pass?"
Danya remained silent.
"Admit it Danya, I can see you have become weary. The weight of your trauma has become a burden upon your shoulders, crushing your soul from out of your body! All in the name of your pathetic moral code. I can relieve you of such a cruel fate. After everything that's happened, you deserve better. Kneel to me, and everything you've ever dreamt of shall be yours."
"But what about Asuka? What about Shinji?"
"Asuka? She's a good for nothing belligerent, narcissistic, egotistical, abrasive, hypocrite. This world would be better off without people like her! You feel it inside, don't you Danya?"
"Yes, I do. All she reminds me of are those heartless bullies who made my life a living hell! I wanted nothing more than to hurt her so badly she'd never recover. But if I did that, I'd be no better."
"Try as she might, she'll never be an honest woman! All she'll ever do to Shinji is hurt him. You wanted to be his little guardian angel, didn't you?"
"Yes, ever since the Third Impact I've always felt that way after losing Nikolai and Adeline. Being Shinji's emotional guardian, his advocate, is the only thing that gave me a sense of purpose!"
"Your faith is weak. You're beyond salvation."
"More than anything I just wanted Shinji to be happy, even if it killed me, to end his suffering!"
"You will end their suffering. No more Instrumentality, no more Impacts, no more Evangelions! Isn't that what you've always wanted, Danya? Deep down..."
"Yes. I always hated Evangelions, hated NERV-U, hated the entire goddamn thing! It's done nothing but act as a constant reminder of my darkest memories."
"What can be better than the power to create a new reality? There are as many truths as there are people. Truth can be whatever you want it to be. After all, truth is subjective, right?"
The walls were starting to close in on Danya, the ink from the walls morphing into demonic spade claw hands reaching out to him, waiting to ensnare him to Gehenna.
"Come on, come on, come on!" Asuka said, pressing the cross with as much pressure as she could, trying to block out what the Devil was saying, until Helel absolutely slandered her. Asuka snarled, pressing the cross further into the AT field. She yelled out to Danya as the Devil tempted him with something akin to Instrumentality.
"Don't listen to him, Danya! Even if he does give you everything that you'd want, it'd just be fake!" She yelled out, pressing further and further, barely processing the conversation between the fallen Angel and Danya. Eventually, with enough force, Asuka and Shinji broke through, the AT-Field fully twisting around her arm and then promptly fading into nothing.
As soon as the cross necklace fell on the ground, wherever that was, time was brought to a standstill once more. The realm turned white. Danya and the Devil turned into little more than charcoal drawings.
Danya looked at the cross, and picked it up. Even...even in the end of all things, even if all would be lost forever, gone from his life, when everything he'd come to know would fade away into nothing...
God would still be there; his creator. He smiled, closed his eyes, humbled himself, surrendered his ego, swallowed his pride, rejected the Devil, and something else awoke in him. No longer did he see himself a savior, but a follower,
"No." Danya said as he opened his eyes. In that moment, the demon-black hands seared and turned to ash upon touching Danya in attempts to corrupt him.
"Truth is not whatever you want it to be, it is what it is. You must bend to its power, or live a lie." He quoted Musashi Miyamoto.
"Why subject yourself to the truth if you have nothing to prove?" Helel asked.
"I don't need to prove anything to anyone, my existence is enough."
"Then do yourself and the world a favor; bring about an end to your doomed existence and meaningless suffering."
"No! My suffering is not meaningless, nor is my existence doomed!"
The walls of the realm began to crack and fade into oblivion with each statement he made; another sense of deja vu.
"I might be unworthy, I might be a terrible person, but I am never, ever, beyond salvation. So long as I bear my cross, the Lord is with me, and it is in him that I find salvation, for he is my strength, my shield, my sword, my savior. After all, if you are real..."
"So is He."
He snapped back to reality, opening his eyes, glowing. The world came back to his senses, and time resumed. His sync rate began to skyrocket before he seized the Naginata and against the Devil's strength, pulled it out of his eye with a determinate war cry. All three pilots were now back in sync, and ready for payback.
—
EVANGELION: WESTSIDE STORY
Episode 9:
"No Sacrifice, No Victory"
—
Asuka hunched over, watching Danya overcome everything as the walls cracked around them. Eventually, everything fell in a flash of light, and Asuka was back in her Entry Plug. She stared down at the beast, watching as Danya pulled the blade out of his eye.
Afterwards, Unit 3.14 rushed at Helel, but was blocked by its AT Field. Asuka smirked, knowing exactly what to do as she quickly leaned forward, her Sync Rates beginning to rise slowly, the LCL around her beginning to brighten and ionize further.
"A.T FIELD, MAXIMUM!"
Unit 3.14 shot out a massive, gold-orange AT field around itself, slowly corroding the Devil's. Asuka groaned in strain as Unit 3.14 stabbed into the barrier with the Naginata, slowly beginning to penetrate it. The girl's synchronization rate, along with the other pilot's Sync Rates began to skyrocket, the Evangelion's eyes beginning to glow a bright white as Asuka let out a war cry similar to Danya's, feeling immense rage towards the Devil for subjecting the people trapped in the LCL, as well as herself and the other pilots in Unit 3.14.
Asuka yelled loudly, locked in what was basically an AT field clash between Unit 3.14 in the Devil himself. Asuka growled, eyes beginning to change color from an azure blue to an emerald green.
Suddenly, the Naginata pierced through, slamming into Helel's chest and piercing the Devil's skin with ease. Unit 3.14 made another slash, cutting the Devil's chest open and causing a vicious black liquid to spew out. Asuka hunched forward, shoving the handlebars in front of her forwards.
"STERB, DU MONSTER!"
Asuka screamed. Unit 3.14 then kicked Helel away, causing the beast to stumble back into the red ocean below. The Evangelion quickly crouched down, jumping to the Devil and landing on its chest with a sickening "KRUNCH". Unit 3.14 stomped on the Devil's chest repeatedly, each time covering more and more of the Evangelion's left leg in the black liquid. Then, the biomechanical machine fell to its knees, grabbing the demon by the neck and getting back on its feet, strangling the Devil. The devil retaliated, using its own hands to free itself from Unit 3.14's grip. It suddenly rushed at the Evangelion, digging its hand deep into the machine's chest in an attempt to grab the nervous system connecting the three Entry Plugs. If it were successful, it would rip all 3 out and kill them. Blood began to leak from all 3 pilot's middle-chests.
"GAH-!"
Asuka yelled in pain, leaning back a bit before suddenly jerking back forward. The Evangelion's hand rushed forward, digging into the Devil's chest, beginning to pierce through it, like in the fight with the Mass Production Evangelions- but this time, it was much more slow. It would take all three pilots to fully incapacitate Helel and get the chance to finish him off for good.
Alongside Asuka, Shinji's sync rate also began to skyrocket. It felt as if he was going berserk, and all things considered, he most likely would've were it not for the Neuropathic Equilibrator which was still strapped to the back of the Eva Unit, and barely functioning.
For the first time in his life, he felt something he had never felt before...he was fighting for his life, he wasn't fighting for anyone else...but himself. This experience awakened deep within him a new sense of determination, a new level of confidence, self preservation, self respect. He was feeling a whirlwind of mixed emotions, all of them driving him to push harder, ceaselessly against the tide, against cruel fate.
As the fighting escalated in unbridled aggression, the Devil retaliated. It seemed like with each harder punch they delivered to the Helel, the Devil would only hit back harder against them. Deep in his gut, Danya could easily tell where this was going. Asuka fought against the MPE's. If it were to successfully disable its central nervous system, the whole mission would be compromised. He had to think...then...Deja Vu...Rei...of course...when all else failed...there was the ultimate sacrifice.
"Shinji, Asuka, can you hear me?" Danya said over the coms. He breathed nervously. "I forgive you...I only hope one day you can forgive me." He said before he accessed the control panel, and switched to manual override before forcefully pushing the ejection button. Before either of them could get a word, their entry plugs would interact, and launch themselves out of the Eva Unit.
Asuka screamed, her pupils dilating as Unit 3.14 and the Devil ruthlessly attacked each other. Eventually, the two both reeled their fists back and slammed them into the other. While the Devil's attack pierced through Unit 3.14's chest, Unit 3.14's attack pierced through the Devil, both combatant's fists ending up in the other's chest. Asuka's chest began leaking even more blood, but that didn't deter her. She screamed once again, digging the Unit's hand deeper and deeper into Helel, her screaming getting even louder. She was hunched forward, handlebars as far forward as they could be, and her teeth were gritted to the point where you could see a lot of her gums. Though, when Danya spoke, Asuka relented on her assault after processing Danya's words. Forgive him...? For wha-
"Danya! Wait!" Shinji yelled as their Entry Plugs were suddenly ejected from the Evangelion Unit and crashed landed and into the ocean. Asuka quickly realizing what was happening. She jumped forward, pressing her hands against the front of the Entry Plug, yelling.
"DANYA!"
Eventually, a loud rumbling could be heard, and the LCL began to drain from the Entry Plug. Asuka quickly rushed to the door, trying to open it. Eventually, she decided to slam into it with her shoulder first. With the adrenaline, she blasted the door from its hinges and leapt out of the Entry Plug. Then she helped Shinji out of his own, turning the latch as hard as she could before opening it. The two were on the coast, and all man made noise was silent, save for some rumbling in the distance from the fight. The sounds of the waves crashing against the sand, the seagulls chirping, and other natural sounds could be heard... The calm before the storm. The 2 pilots were far away from Unit 3.14 and its opponent. Asuka watched as well as the people aboard the boats, speechless and in slight horror.
"Designation Unit 3.14 actual, initiate emergency SDS. Set countdown, 20 seconds."
This was it. He had come to value his life in his final moments on this earth. It would be performing his last and quite possibly his greatest act; sacrificing oneself in the name of love for that of another. In this case, Danya was doing it for the two people he had come to bond with the most in this world. He was happy...grateful...that he had ever met them, whether they shaped him for better or for worse, however short-lived it was, it was still an experience he'd never forget. Everything that he endured had shaped him into the man he had become. And it was a beautiful thing.
"Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." He said as he closed his eyes, making peace, clutching closely to the Devil as his Evangelion unit began to flare up.
Captain Battlehorne couldn't believe what he was seeing. "He's really gonna do it." He uttered as he took his cap off and held it to his chest, his eyes watering up as he witnessed his own surrogate son sacrificing his own life.
"Sir! We have an unidentified object inbound from the upper atmosphere!" One of the comms people said to him. As he looked up, and saw something sparkle within the sky, it revealed itself to be none other than a Lance, not of the design of Longinus...but something more...complex.
The lance flew through the air and penetrated both Unit 3.14 and the Devil, who convulsed at the touch of the holy weapon, and shook with the force of a thousand lightning strikes before pure unbridled energy shot upward from his eyes and mouth, scattering across the rim of Earth's atmosphere in a stellar dance akin to the Aurora Borealis, transforming the LCL from blood red, to orange once more, sparing the souls of humanity from the torment.
Asuka watched as the Evangelion Unit began to flare up, orange and white light emitting from in-between the crevasses and cracks of the Unit. Asuka's fists tighten up as she watches Danya's final moments on Earth.
Asuka watched as the mysterious lance shot through the sky like a bullet, slamming through the two beasts and making a massive, metallic screeching sound. She continued watching, in shock as the Devil slowly began to convulse before shooting out pure energy. She watched the energy scatter across the Earth- the energy, it looked like stars... at least to her. She watched as the LCL reverted back to its natural, orange coloration. The low hum and quiet screaming stopped, and all seemed to return to how it once was.
The Third Mate and the rest of their crew rushed out to the deck of their boat, watching the LCL turn from blood red to orange. They were all nearly silent before the Third Mate quickly turned around to the crew.
"Steer the boat towards the shore. We need to reach the pilots."
And so, the boat did so, quickly docking itself at the shore and making sure it got there as quickly as possible, even overclocking the boat's engine to make it go even faster. The crew stood behind Asuka and Shinji, and the Third Mate stood to Shinji's side. Everyone watched silently.
"Where did the lance come from?" The First Mate asked.
"Its trajectory indicates it was from...space. But...who sent it?" The Second Mate asked.
"I don't know. But it's a miracle if I ever saw one." Battlehorne said.
As helicopters and other military vehicles were being used to retrieve Danya, he fell into a deep coma, and slowly but surely started to have an out-of-body experience.
Danya blinked, and found himself in a strange realm...one that seemed to be...impossible. It was void. Nothing was there, save for a light.
From the light, a figure appeared, silhouetted until it stepped into view to reveal...
He couldn't believe it...it was...his girlfriend...Adeline...
"Adeline...?" He uttered
"Danya...it's been too long." She said, in a voice angelic and soothing.
Danya fell to his knees, sobbing uncontrollably. "I'm sorry...I'm so sorry...I failed to save you..."
"You never failed anyone Danya." She said as she knelt down. "I can see it in your eyes you've been hurting for a long time. It's okay to be weak. We all are."
"Why…did you lie…to me?" He begged as he looked up to her, his face a gibbering wreck.
"...Ever since I was a baby, SEELE claimed to have abducted my family and held them hostage. If I disobeyed their command, they'd kill my parents, and my little brother. But I should've known they were already dead by then."
"Just...like...me..." He said, realizing that her upbringing paralleled his own, he tilted his head down again.
"Danya. I never meant to hurt you. I hoped you'd never find out the truth about me. I took the bullet in the hopes you'd find happiness in Instrumentality, to spare you from the pain of being hurt again. But I was wrong. I just hope one day, you can forgive me for what I've done." Adeline said to him, her eyes shimmering.
"Adeline, my love…I forgive you. But why…why haven't you returned from Instrumentality?" He begged.
"Because I was never there. I'm in a better place now." She smiled.
He gasped, raising his head up to her, eyes wide with awe. "Are you at peace?"
She nodded. "I am."
Danya raised his hands to the light. Jaw agape, his heart sang praises and worship uncounted. His soul was alleviated by serendipity, before he turned his attention back to his love.
"I still wish I could've saved you." He regretted it.
"You already have Danya. And it's thanks to you, that many more shall heed the call from on high." Adeline comforted him. "When the time comes, we will be reunited once more. And we shall embrace under the light of the dawn of a new beginning."
"A Neon Genesis."
"Evangelion."
"Danya...it's time to let go."
Danya hugged her lovingly as she began to fade away. "I love you...so much."
"I love you too. I promised I'd never leave you."
The light encompassed them both and Danya awoke, hysterical and ravening mad from his encounter with divine intervention, clutching the cross necklace Shinji and Asuka had given him.