Chapter 22 "No man's dawn."
Part 3" The world in flames."
The head of Lorenz Keel roll over from the bag into the wall and from the looks of it his last moments weren't kind in the slightest.
"What do you want with this?" Asked Shinji.
"To make a peace with you. I thought that you would appreciate my gift of gratitude."
"You have a weird way at showing "peace" monster." Said Asuka from behind.
"Don't tell you didn't want this to happened to them. Those people are another reason why your lives are the way they are. They are the worst of the worsts."
"And what makes you better?" Asked Shinji again.
Adam smiled in response. "What I will bring to the table."
They both looked at him with nervously.
" I always saw your kind as one big mistake, a miscalculation of life you might say. But the two of you proved me wrong and I respect that into some extent."
"Ha, I guess the two of us are unstoppable on the battlefield?" Said Asuka sarcastically to Shinji.
"No,no,no I don't talk about fighting, all though it is true you that the two are a formidable foe. I am talking about what happened in instrumentality."
The two of them continued listening to him , they didn't know were he was going for but they were ready for everything regardless.
"I always, wonder how would your kind reacted if instrumentality actually happened. I expected sadness, anger hell even though that might liked in the end, but at of all those emotions the one that you called "hope" wasn't one of them. Isn't it amusing at off all the people in the world you were the only one to forgive them for their mistakes when everyone had turned you. This takes some serious guts to pulled off. The same goes for Asuka , which I was expecting to hate Lilins the most, since she never truly cared about others as long she got the recognition she wanted."
"So how this have to do with now?" Said Asuka angrily.
"Getting into it. When I learned that there more timelines like this one my interest peaked. But I needed something or someone to travel through. So when the two of you were spotted out of sea I knew who will be my candidatures and then the two of you help me to preach the next universe. Because, just like what priest said once "When one universe ends another starts".Of course knew that my sudden appearance will attract some attention so I to played from the shadows and moved my pawns where I need them to be. Everyone up until now played their role perfectly, the only one who would have ruined the plan was that bastard spawn Rei. She was the only had saw the signs, but thankfully Lilith awaken as she spotted my presence and found a way to throw her off. She antagonised both of in order to make you look like you were the ones who will ruin her master's plan.Its kinda ironing isn't it?She tried so hard to stop from emerging and yet here I am in the flesh. Now I hear you ask:"Why is there so much angel activity in the first place?". Well you see, there's a barrier between timelines and you helped me break that barrier. But when something is broke there will be concicunnes and now with each passing day the hole in real space gets larger and larger, pouring more and more parts of the Sea Souls until everything will become into something new and beautiful."
"Not everyone have a similar opinion about what you call "beautiful"." Said Shinji as he disrupt him.
"All I am offering is a choice. Join with me and help me create a new beginning. With my knowledge about the universe and your knowledge about the lilins we can shape everything in to our will."
"And what about this place?" Asked Asuka.
"If you want to make an omelet you need to crack some eggs first. And this world will provide the perfect eggs."
Unresistable anger formed in Asuka face's. " You bastard I will make eat those words." She was about to attack him but the only one who were holding her back was Shinji.
"Why can't we just find way that can benefit both sides without killing anyone? There must be a solution."
"This is the solution Shinji,destroy the broken to create something complete or embrace your destruction."
"Don't listen to him Shinji he is crazy to the point of no return."
Shinji was conflicted.On the one hand he knew what the power of Lilith and Adam can do. He can shape reality to its will and bring back all the people he lost,he can bring them a better future without Nerv,SEELE , the Evas or anything that can screw them over. A power which he had rejected before. But one the other hand he knew what will his ambitions can cause to the rest of the world. He has came to understand that the past is past and he should thrive for a better future with Asuka. He can't undo mistakes but he can learn from the them in order to become a better person for the future. So in the end he knew with who he should stand.
"No." He said. "We won't join you. We have already picked a side."
"Think about it . We can create a place that is fair, we won't have to fight pointless battles or be controlled by other forces. There won't be an endless versions of this but one cohesive universe where we can do what we want."
"He said "No" asshole what part of: "We don't want to be a part of your twisted fantasies" don't understand?" Answered Asuka.
Adam looked down in disappointment his face resembled both a face of dissatisfaction and anger.
"Shame, because you are the few who have my respect and admiration. I truly believed that could find an agreement, but at last you have made your choice and I already made mine."
Before the two of could react Adam lifted them in the air with just a weave of its hands and hit them against the wall.
Shinji despite the pain his was feeling he managed to make a chuckle.
"Gendo has already fortified most of the Geofront, they are prepared this time."
But Adam didn't seem to be taken by surprise at that comment.
"Fool, at the time were talking Misato Katsuragi is trying to break the secret files of your base to find out about what truly Nerv is all about. Giving us the perfect opening to hack in the system's defences .Oh and one last thing, Gendo was preparing for an attack that will come next month but the truth is that attack is happening now."
The walls around the church broke down in to pieces, revealing the battle which was happening miles away. Both Shinji and Asuka tried to break free from Adam's grasp but unfortunately they couldn't get away. As Adam was about to finish them off, bombs flew into his direction. The angel blocked most of them as expected but the bombs weren't for harming but to blinded him.
"WHO DARES?" But before he could get answer his prisoners were vanish from his sight.
Confusion was the first thing that came to his mind as he had thought this almost flawlessly, but as he picked up a familiar sense in the area all, he understood it all.
"I thought I have distanced him out of the game, but it seems he has some final cards to play. Regardless Kaji , the end time is at hand and even at their best they won't be able to stop me." After saying that he flew in the distance to fight in the warwhich was waging on.
Despite his unconscious state Shinji could hear the noises of battle in the background. He wasn't sure if that was exactly what was happening nor if his brain reminded him the day he lost even the things he never knew he could lose.
But despite all of that he still wanted to open his eyes even though he feared what he might see when he will.
"SHINJI." Said a voice to him. His ear still recovering from the shock wave earlier.
"WAKE UP SHINJI." The voice said again.
And as he opened his eyes, he spotted the same redhead that he always came to love.
She was in front of him face to face and from the looks of it she never left her eyes off of him.
"You shout a lot." He simply commented.
"And for a good reason Baka." She answered with a smile and small tear coming from her left eye.
As he getting up, Shinji started examine his surroundings. It seemed that his was inside a van and the constant moving was a proof of that.
"Where are we?" He asked.
"In good hands." A voice said.
Shinji went to where the noise came for and saw non either than Kaji driving the vehicle like he was in a race.
Shinji was dumbfounded for a second.
"Just so you know, it wasn't a easy thing to keep myself hidden from everyone which knew of me." As he said that, he turn the vehicle to avoid some of the gunn fire which was happening around him.
"Glad to see you alive and well Kaji." Said Shinji as he was trying to hold in to something.
"Same." He said back.
The truck was moving with the best speed it can offer, while everyone and everything around them was pure chaos.
It was clear that the attackers will be the winner of this battle and it showed .They had uncountable numbers on their side and with each area taken they kept pushing forward while the defenders of Nerv were trying to hold on as best as they could. His "father" had prepared well, but without the Magi nor the Eva to back them off Nerv was destined to lose eventually. For a brief moment Shinji thought he had spotted some mass produce Eva tearing the battlefield, but he wasn't completely sure if he saw that or it was just his imagination playing tricks on him.
After some driving through the mayhem that was becoming Nerv, Kaji managed to park the van in to some place further from the battlefield.
Then, the three of them exited the car and Kaji guide them in to secret entrance which was leading inside Geofront and the Nerv headquarters.
"You know this place better than the people who built it Kaji." Said Asuka astoundingly.
"A secret agent must always knows he is way in and out." Answered Kaji.
They continued their way to many corridors and doors. For the most part, they had managed to remain hidden from the amry troops but as they were heading to the cages the were noticed .
"I spotted some people going to cages, quick hunt them down." Said one of the soldiers to his squad. The others followed his command and started trucking them down.
"Shit, we are spotted. Kids keep your heads low and run as fast as you can. I will hold them off and keep up with you." Said Kaji.
Both Asuka and Shinji did exactly that even though they would have acted the same if Kaji hadn't tell them to do so.
As the children were running away Kaji had managed to kill one of the guards who were following them but as he was about to shoot the another one more of them started firing back at him, so he was forced.
It didn't took long to catch up with the kids but he soon realised that it wasn't he who was but the fact that the had stopped running.
"I told to run ,why..." Before he could finish his sentence he saw the barrel of a familiar gun pointing into their direction.
"Don't move an inch." Said a vengeful Misato.
Neither people from the group found time to say a thing, because a gun fire was heard first.
A.N: Good holidays everyone. Yes, I understand that I was very late but because I had something tests at the end of November and start of December I wasn't able to write for a while. I thought I would have finished the story earlier but it looks like in the early months of the next year will the story finish.