NGE characters belong to their respective owners.
Notes: Yes, it's the too-long-delayed update to the TEOHD series. My thanks goes to those who continues to show interest in this choppy, highly-experimental fic so long after Part I's been out. Can't promise how fast this gets updated since I'm drowning in work these days, but I'll try to carry this one through to the ending.
Chapter 1
The boy's known world, having since fallen apart, was now beginning to blur.
One moment, he was seated in Unit 01's cockpit while also falling into Nagisa Kaworu's open arms; the next, he was getting drawn into an endless expanse of smooth, organic whiteness fair as albino flesh . . .
'This is the Rei in your heart . . .' said his mother's disembodied voice, originating from neither here nor there, ' . . . your very hopes and dreams . . .'
'What do you wish for?' asked Rei, her voice echoing right in the deep recesses of his own mind.
"I want a place to return to . . ." replied Ikari Shinji with the honesty of a very young child, with his bleary eyes slowly closing. "Somewhere . . ."
"What the hell is going on now?" asked Asuka Langley Soryu, feeling at a complete loss.
The theatre she and the NERV gang were in - previously somewhat normal in appearance except for its improbable size - now was suddenly displaying a vast multitude of vivid scenes from all around: on the ceiling, upon the walls, down on the floor . . . basically, on all surfaces but the rolls of seats themselves. All the separate scenes were parked against each other in their hexagonal frames, which vaguely reminded the Eva Pilot of the Control Room's stylized emergency signals.
The term "hive mind" occurred to the girl then, raising (no doubt, metaphoric) goose bumps on her skin.
"Looks like the Room of Guf is resonating with the Seed Body now that Instrumentality at last begins," said Ritsuko, observing the abrupt change overtaking their surroundings with clinical calmness. Asuka saw how, standing right beside the Dr., was a semi-lucent apparition of an older woman who shared a family resemblance with her. Under Asuka's awed gaze, she could be seen slowly sinking into the hexagonal "scene frame" right underneath her feet; that woman was not the only one: Kaji-san, too, was sinking down into a scene.
"Looks like we, who've made the transition earlier on, are to go first in the queue to merge with the Collective Consciousness," said the man(?), smiling faintly to himself during his descend. "I'll be seeing everyone on the other side." He then disappeared completely into the hexagon.
Misato, who had avoided looking at Kaiji-san all along for reasons unknown to Asuka, now turned towards the non-human of their group – the humanoid Seventeenth Angel, currently fitting into the NERV-centric group with unsettling ease. "So what happens now, Nagisa?"
"Now?" The Angel smiled his infuriatingly unreadable smile. "Now is where everything begins."
"Meaning?" pressed the NERV Major, determined for some straightforward and detailed exposition.
"As some of you might have already realized, we are all currently inside what once was the Seed body known to a select few at NERV as Lilith.
"Once was?"
"With myself - who bears Adam's spirit - now having fused with Lilith via Ayanami Rei's invitation, this hybrid seed form now acts as host to the Collective Consciousness of all Lilin souls –- those who had since crossed the line, and those who are about to follow." As the Angel spoke, the massive "main screen" at the front of the theatre showed Unit 01, its exposed core punctured by the Spear of Longinus, transforming into what looked like a cross-shaped tree cupped between the white giant's massive palms. "Such is Instrumentality –- the final evolution of the Lilin Race unto its maximized perfection. Ayanami, having been complemented by Lilith, has full power over Instrumentality's mechanism; I, who is of Adam, shall act as her guide, and be the 'will' to back up that power."
Asuka, listening on from the side, found herself hopelessly lost. "What are you people talking about-" She got cut off by a hand - Misato's hand - grabbing onto hers right before merging into her flesh. Just like that, info she herself had never acquired started filling her mind like data inputted into file, updating the Eva Pilot to full knowledge over her highly fantastical current situation.
"I see now . . . Collective Consciousness, huh?" Detaching herself from Misato's "flesh" –- no doubt just a visual presentation of the woman's consciousness in this strange place/plane/space –- Asuka faced the Angel with her best solemn, hard gaze. "Tabris, tell me how to reach Shinji."
Smile deepening at her demand, the Angel pointed down at the "floor" right where Asuka was standing. Glancing down, the girl blinked at seeing a hexagon showing what looked like a children's playground, where a familiar-looking young child was building a sand pyramid.
"Shinji . . ."
"That, is but one of the facades making up the totality of Shinji-kun's consciousness, Soryu-san."
Before Asuka could ask what the Angel meant, she was already noticing how the other hexagon frames surrounding the one she stood upon also had scenes "featuring" the boy in various places and situations: lying on his bed at Misato's Apartment, riding the Tokyo-3 Transit, lounging around the bridge over the Eva's cage . . . etc, etc.
"Shinji-kun . . ." murmured Misato, appearing perturbed as she gave the scenes a once-over. "But which one of these is actually the current him at this moment?"
"Or, could it be that they all are?" commented Ritsuko. "A person's mind can be all over the place at any one particular moment."
The Angel gave her an appraising nod. "All these, together, reflects the totality of Ikari Shinji's consciousness at this very moment," he said, confirming the scientist's suspicion. "They are windows to his soul, so to speak. Whether someone can reach him through them, however, depends on what weight they carry in his heart." He glanced down and at the hexagon he was standing upon. "I already have Shinji-kun right here with me."
Asuka took a look at just what kind of scene the Angel was referring to . . . and flushed red in the face.
The hexagon showed what looked like the personnel's bath area at NERV, where Shinji was already naked and drenched.
"What the . . ?!" Asuka was further outraged by the sight of the Angel now sinking down into the "Shinji bath scene". "Y-You . . . HEY! Where'd you think you're going?!"
"To him," replied the Angel, matter-of-factly. "I've chosen this particular angle where I believe he could be most easily reached." Having sunken downwards past his knees, the Angel's wardrobe had likewise changed, such that he now was naked but for a small towel wrapped around his bony hips. "You can always follow suit if you'd dare to." He spoke with a noticeable twinkle in his smiling red eyes, one that had Asuka clenching her trembling fists.
"You . . . freak!" Snarling, Asuka charged forward intend on doing physical violence to the Angel regardless of their strength discrepancy . . . but found herself held back by Misato.
"Nagisa-kun, you're trying to agitate Asuka even now," pointed out Misato with a disapproving frown. "Why?"
"Somehow, the Angel is trying to goad her into fighting him over Shinji-kun," pondered Ritsuko. "But why?" Suddenly, the sharp-minded woman gasped softly as though something had occurred to her. "Wait, could it be-"
"Asuka!"
Jolting at that familiar voice, Asuka turned to see her mother, looking disheveled from where she was hurrying down the seats' aisle and at her.
"Asuka, dear, please let Mama explain-"
"NOOO!" recoiled Asuka, the memory of her mother literally "haunting" her father unto madness still fresh in her mind. And, before she knew it, she had already stumbled upon the hexagon containing the "bath scene", and was rapidly getting sucked down into it. "Oh . . ." The girl flushed with mortification at being confronted with the bathing, naked Shinji her soul now was getting pulled towards. "Oh no . . . I ain't ready to deal with this right now. . ."
"Soryu-san." The Angel, since having incorporated himself into the bath scene –- as a fellow male pilot cleaning up beside Shinji, it seemed - offered her a cat like smile. "Ready or not, here is the best chance you've got to reach Shinji-kun, before Instrumentality is to go into full swing, and it gets even more difficult for specific human minds to find each other."
Teeth clenched - and already feeling the steam of the bath upon her skin - Asuka glared daggers at the brazen Angel. "Tabris-"
"And, a word before we go further," purred the Angel, now bathing shamelessly besides the likewise towel-lapped Shinji. "When this is over, only one of us will get to be in the same world with Shinji-kun."
Asuka blue eyes widened at his statement. "What . . . do you mean?"
"Asuka!"
Under their watchful eyes, Kyoko Zeppelin Soryu, looking like a disheveled cross between a mental patient and a vengeful ghost, crawled frantically at the "bath scene" her daughter had disappeared into, but appeared to be blocked by a barrier of sorts. She eventually got pulled into an adjacent hexagon by forces unseen, disappearing within.
Left on their own in the Room of Guf, the two top female personnel of NERV observed the increasing number of people entering the hexagonal scenes cluttered about, all the while pondering their own options.
"There are really only two possible outcomes for Instrumentality," mused Akagi Ritsuko, who had remained largely in the know throughout the lead up. "That Humanity remains united within the Collective Consciousness, or that some or all people regain their individuality while continuing on living as separate organisms upon reality . . . upon this Earth." Her brows creased in apparent bafflement. "The Seventeenth Angel, who purposely let his human vessel get killed by Shinji-kun back then . . . he probably did so knowing he would again become powerful after fusing with this Lilith-hybrid. He is obviously trying to alter Instrumentality's outcome . . . but towards what ends?"
"The Earth is getting ravaged by SEELE's brutal method in forcing Instrumentality as we speak," muttered Katsuragi Misato as she eyed the scene on the Room's main screen, where a massive gape could be seen remaining upon Japan after the Black Moon's elevation into the Stratosphere. "How Strange . . . shouldn't Japan have collapsed from the damage done to its structure by now? Surely, for an area so vulnerable to seismic volatility . . . plus an Angel is having major control over Mankind's future. I should be more worried . . . but somehow I'm not?" Ceasing, she shook her head blearily. "It's like when I'm hung over; think my mind's blurring as we speak."
"Mine too," admitted Ritsuko, observing the numerous hexagons lined up on the floor. "Looks like we too have to enter our consciousness into one of these mind-worlds if we want to hang on to our individuality."
"Let's," agreed Misato, already stepping up and into a scene she picked at random. It looked, to the watchful Ritsuko, like a messily kept college dorm room with a dated vibe . . .
To be continued . . .?
