Creation began on 07-02-24
Creation ended on 02-26-25
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Infinity Redemption: Getting to Work
Despite having to wait for two weeks to get the authorities to lose track of Shinji, Rumiko and the children with them taking shelter at the church, Toji, Kensuke and Hikari had ample time to master the abilities of, and receive the wisdom of, the Power, Mind and Reality Stone, respectively. As school let out for the day in Tokyo-3, the three students and Stonekeepers met up on the rooftop of the school, away from the students and teachers. They were as prepared as they would ever be for this goal, and they were just waiting for their fellow Stonekeepers to meet with them to begin.
"Two weeks to master what we can do in secret," Toji expresses as he keeps out of sight on the room. "To possess the power to do anything you want is a sense of addiction, but knowing where to use it, when to use it, how you must use it…and why you must use such a power is what makes one worthy to have it."
"Well said, Toji," Kensuke responds. "What of you, Hikari? Have you been able to peer through the veils of our perceivable reality into other variations of reality?"
"I have," the girl reveals, "but each reality is just one of many, the result of many factors in a web of endless patterns and a roll of motion picture frames wind so tight that the frames connect through other frames."
"Alternate realities?"
"Yes. A multiverse of endless possibilities…and even greater impossibilities…all at the same time, happening throughout time and space."
"Incredible," Toji and Kensuke say, just as a rift through space appears in front of the three, and they see Shinji and Rumiko step out of it.
"Hey, everyone," Shinji greets them. "How you've been?"
"Patient," Toji says, "and restless."
"Well, we no longer need to wait, anymore," Rumiko states. "The time is now, and we need to get this over with. When it's all said and done…you'll be home before dinner is even thought of by your relatives. Maybe half an hour, maybe less than that. It's exciting."
"We'll be able to achieve this all within that length of time?" Hikari asks.
"I've seen it is possible. So long as we have clarity of mind and rely on each other for support. The six of us will each be able to make up for whatever limitations that we may have."
"Yeah."
Shinji opens another rift in the space in front of them, leading to a strange chamber that looks dimly lit.
"Whoa," Toji gasps. "What is that?"
"The Infinity Chamber," went Kensuke in realization. "Because there are six of us wielding the stones, this dimensional chamber is now accessible to us."
"Incredible," Hikari expresses, and they all go through the rift, entering the chamber and meeting with Sister Rosetta, who was sitting at a stone, round table decorated with the colors of the Infinity Stones. "Absolutely incredible."
"Matched only by the radiance of the Almighty One himself," Sister Rosetta says as Hikari sits on her left, corresponding with the Reality Stone.
Kensuke sits down on Hikari's left side, as the color of his corner of the table corresponds with the Mind Stone, followed by Toji, Shinji and Rumiko, completing the circle. Once they were all seated, the room lit up with an image of the planet they all now possessed the power to heal and create other worlds in its image if they desire. Every inch of the blue planet made each the teens and nun feel a degree of discomfort over the revelation that it was a handful of people that controlled the world from behind the scenes that caused the devastation that befell them fifteen years ago. Even if they possess the power to undo it all, the people that still caused the loss of all the lives and resources that they needed would still be free…until someone did the right thing and brought them to justice for their crimes against the world.
"But even if we do nothing," Sister Rosetta says, "those that have defiled the world will be judged by a higher power for their actions and receive the most just of comeuppance in the end."
"My only question is," went Toji, "how long until they receive their just desserts? How long must the people that suffered fifteen years ago and lived to this day wait for the ones responsible to pay for what they allowed to happen in the first place?"
Sister Rosetta's silence is an indication that, while a believer in righteousness, she possesses no answer for him or the others regarding the people that maimed the world.
"We're going to do everything we can to make it all right, Toji," Shinji tells him. "We're going to do it all."
Space, they hear the voices of the stones as they glow on their bodies. Time, Soul, Power, Mind and Reality. In the beginning, we were all that existed before the one became the few and the many. We have endured and survived for generations after generations of life and death, expansion and development. And now, we stand together again to do a grand wonder never before witnessed by the untold masses across our universe. Stonekeepers…what would your hearts ask of us?
There is a silence from the six, the stones already knowing what it is they have in mind to become a reality. Their wills harmonized by a single goal made up of several aims, born of their hopes and dreams. To restore their world, to create another world, to revitalize the life force that dwelled upon existence, to renew the faith of the forsaken, to give hope to the broken and deal swift justice to the cruelest of those that stole power and misused it.
Let your will be done, the stones tell them, and they could see what was being done in that instant across the Earth and beyond it.
The flooding caused by the melting of the South Pole reversing itself, restoring the Antarctic to its previous state of being, restoring the coastal areas to before their ruination.
The spreading of diseases shortly after Second Impact removed, and the diseases that existed prior to Second Impact being treated to the point of cured, reducing the global mortality rate significantly, allowing those afflicted to live a little longer than they originally had been expected to live.
Animals and plants being returned to life, erasing the list of extinct species by turning it back into a list of endangered species that now had their habitats returned to them.
Evidence being distributed across the news media outlets that revealed who caused Second Impact and why, enabling the authorities to act and apprehend the perpetrators and deal in swift justice for their crimes.
Just a considerable distance away from the planet, in a matter of seconds, another sphere was molded in its image, down to the very continents and islands, towns and cities.
And finally, the spark of new existence on the new planet as, on its dark side, small specks of light illuminated to show that it was set to be habited in the future…or was habited already if they were fortunate enough to pull off everything they wanted and needed to do.
Life, death, rebirth, change, renewal and balance, the stones utter. May you six maintain the balance that exists between you. Until then, enjoy the success of what you have achieved in this moment that nobody else has ever done in their lifetime. You have earned it. Until you have need of us as a whole once again.
The light in the chamber dims, and the six of them look to one another, fully aware of what had been accomplished, smiling.
"We did it," Shinji says.
"We did it," Rumiko repeats.
"I saw the wonders of rebirth and resurrection," Sister Rosetta confesses. "I saw the eyes of the Almighty in their fullest glory. It was amazing."
"The core of the world," went Toji. "The core of the universe. The core of all and one. It was like fire, water, earth, air and aether, all jumbled together…and not jumbled together. A storm or whirlwind of energies…but it was beautiful. What we did was…beautiful."
"This is the way things are now," Hikari states as she gets up from her seat. "The reality we once knew is no longer the reality that is. What was is now part of what is, and what is is made new by what was. Let what was be once more. Let what is be only half of what is no more."
"And justice has begun its course to being served," Kensuke reveals. "In the here and now, hope is renewed and suffering is no longer a constant issue. I am glad I got to be a part of something as big as this."
"Likewise," Rumiko agrees. "What we did… Nobody in the world will ever know in any entirety. But the people that matter to us… In one sense or another…they'll know what we did…and that's enough."
Shinji nods his head in agreement, followed by Hikari and Sister Rosetta.
Four rifts in space behind them open up, leading to different places.
"Those three will take you three home," Shinji tells Toji, Kensuke and Hikari, pointing to the rifts behind them. "We'll see you around."
"Say, Rumiko," Kensuke asks, "it's probably against the rules to ask, but now that things are different…will you and Shinji and your kids…be alright?"
Rumiko looks to Shinji and then back to their friends.
"We're still young," she says, "and we still have a future to build together. It just won't include our respective parents or guardians. We'll make do. We're bound to be fine."
"Don't hesitate to ask for help," Hikari tells them. "Should you ever need a hand."
"Yeah," Toji adds.
"Thank you," Shinji praises, and the three head on home. "Shall we, Rumiko?"
"Yes," she replies, just as Sister Rosetta goes through the rift taking them back to the church. "Let's head back to our kids."
They go through…and were back inside the church, in front of the children.
"Daddy, Daddy!" Shado greets her father, reaching for his right hand and tugging at it. "There's a big, blue moon in the sky!"
"It just appeared in the sky!" Toya adds as he reaches for Rumiko's left arm. "Did you two do that? It's so cool!"
They pulled the teen parents to the closest window and showed them the neighboring planet in the sky.
"Look, look!" Shado says, causing Shinji to smile.
"Oh! Oh, yes, I can see it!" He responds. "Amazing."
"It's an act of the gods," Sister Rosetta announces. "A divine gift to the world."
-x-
"…I don't believe it," went Misato as she and the rest of Central Dogma saw the sudden phenomenon that was another planet in the sky, resembling their own, among the other phenomena that occurred within seconds of each other.
"It's not possible," Ritsuko expresses; she was a woman of logic, of rationality and possibility, and this was all impossible. And yet, it's all now.
The ocean levels were reduced to pre-Second Impact conditions, the number of cities and towns wiped out by the flooding and waves restored and looking like they were never destroyed, the reports coming in from across social media about the number of animal and plant species suddenly being recognized and filmed for posterity, the satellites quickly gravitating towards the other planet to take recordings of its surface and people wanting to know how it got there, and every other reaction they had yet to address.
Gendo, realizing that this had to be because of Shinji, taking his time away to acquire the Infinity Stones for his own purposes, fumes over his son's actions and wants only to find him and have him incarcerated for his deceit. If he believes that just because he did all of this that he would be seen as a hero or even a god, he was sorely mistaken; he would make certain of this.
"Uh, we have a bigger problem here," went Hyuga to them. "An email was just sent here from the Japanese government. An A-801 order has been invoked."
"What does that mean?" Misato questions.
"NERV's legal protection has been terminated," Ritsuko explains. "Something must be up."
"The email states that a list of individuals within NERV are wanted for questioning regarding some recent information that was made available to some news media outlets and… What the Hell?! What the Hell?!"
"What is it?" Misato questions as Hyuga jumps out of his seat and points a finger at Gendo, Ritsuko and Fuyutsuki, his facial expression that of fear and disgust.
"You!" He yells. "You knew! You knew!"
Misato looks over at the open email…and couldn't believe what she was seeing.
"Ritsuko," she says, "you knew what really caused Second Impact…and it wasn't the First Angel attacking anyone…and this Human Instrumentality Project that was intended for when all the Angels were defeated."
"What?" Ritsuko questions, not believing this to be true.
"Let's wait and see what the police have to say about this, because they'll be here in a few hours to question the three of you."
-x-
"…Tokyo-2…Nagoya…Oshima Island…the original Tokyo?!" Hikari couldn't believe it as she was watching the news with her sisters, seeing headlines on every town and city across the nation restored and people now making plans to repopulate them. "This is all…"
"Stupendous!" Nozomi cheers.
"Unreal," adds Kodama, though Hikari can't fault her disbelieving this.
"Praise the kami," their father says. "Someone up there must've been listening and answered the prayers that needed to be answered."
If only you could know, Hikari thinks, smiling at him.
"Something like this…is better than winning the lottery…because everyone won something good from this."
-x-
"Wow, big brother," went Sakura to her brother as they and their grandfather looked up at the sky and saw the second Earth. "It looks so pretty."
"Yes, it does," he agrees with her.
"…It's amazing, people," a voice on the radio says. "It's happening all over the world. Cities and towns lost due to Second Impact have miraculously reappeared and reports of lost animals and plants have returned to life in their preferred habitats. But among the more crazier events that have taken place is the discovery of people responsible for Second Impact being outed and pursued by foreign and domestic authorities for causing the event and trying to orchestrate another event like it's some sort of game they're playing, only with real consequences for the people at large. The number of culprits so far are in the double digits, and the list of locations are few, even with the landmasses restored. If you see any of these culprits in your area, please inform the local authorities."
Toji, despite hearing this, wasn't too concerned about the culprits holding out for long. It was only a matter of time before their luck ran out. He knows that these people had no place to hide in a world that now knows who they are and what they did and tried to do. Whoever does try to help them would likely face the same fate as the ones responsible for Second Impact. But now, he just wants to enjoy this small moment of peace he has with his sister in the restored world.
-x-
It was a strange feeling for the children, but it was the first time they had ever gone to a beach at night. While it was not something the Sisterhood of the Soul normally did, Sister Rosetta made an exception because of the remarkable deed she and the other Stonekeepers performed today and it allowed for the children to enjoy the smaller rewards partaken from using the Infinity Stones harmoniously with the aim to restore the world.
"Sister Rosetta," went Shinji to the keeper of the Soul Stone, noticing that the orphans the sisterhood look after were livelier than he had ever seen them before. "Be honest. It's not wrong to do, but when we did what we did to right the wrongs of the past, you made it so that the children were without their illnesses, didn't you?"
"It's the first time I really chose to do something that was a little selfish of me," she tells him and Rumiko as they sit by the bonfire. "I have violated one of the Ten Commandments."
"Which one?" Rumiko asks.
"'Though shalt not steal'."
"But…you didn't steal anything from anyone," Shinji states his belief. "We used the full power of the Infinity Stones. The power of the stones is without limit, limited only by what we believe them to be capable of. It is impossible to steal using the stones to do what you chose to do, Sister Rosetta. You didn't violate any of your commandments. You simply gave the kids what they didn't have before. You gave them a chance to have a future. I'm sure your god can understand your intentions and forgive your actions."
"Thank you, Shinji."
The sound of the waves make Shinji feel elation as he smiles while roasting a pair of marshmallows on a stick.
"May I ask you something that I believe you did, Shinji?" Sister Rosetta asks.
"Sure," he replies. "I don't really have any secrets to hide from those I trust."
"It was a subtle feeling at first, but just be honest. When the second Earth was born, you moved some people onto it, didn't you?"
"Only half the total population, split between those that have a place to call home…and those that don't have a home. The runaways, the homeless, the forsaken that need a second chance to turn their lives around."
"Do they know?"
"Kensuke told them," Rumiko utters, revealing that she knows of Shinji's actions. "We're still on the original Earth, though; it's still a big step for us to take."
"Their souls no longer live in want, no longer afflicted with the bitterness of envy. If you take away one's desire for shelter by providing it for them, you take away their bitterness towards other people that have been fortunate enough to have no need for concern. You've obtained my praise for such a selfless act."
"Thank you Sister Rosetta."
"Daddy, the marshmallows," Shado tells her father, reminding him that the marshmallows were now burning.
"Oh!" Shinji gasps as he pulls the stick back and blows the fire out on the gooey treat. "Whew! Are you ready, Shado?"
Shado holds her hands out, holding a pair of graham crackers, the one in her left hand holding a piece of chocolate atop it.
Shinji places one of the marshmallows atop the chocolate and watches Shado place the other piece of the graham cracker over it. Then, he watches as she takes a bite out of it.
"Hmmm!" She reacts. "I love this!"
Hearing his daughter say this in front of him was another small victory for him, another moment for him to feel this sense of pride as a parent…and love towards this little girl he was blessed with just for being in his life. He hopes for more moments like this in the future. More of these small victories and rewards that came with being this girl's father. His own childhood had been a crappy experience, day in and day out, made bearable only by the friendship of Rumiko during that time he was living with his maternal relatives, but he wasn't going to let Shado's childhood be a cruel echo of how his had been.
"I wish I could bottle this moment," says Toya to his mother.
"Oh, believe me, baby," she tells him, "I'm bottling this moment right now."
-x-
Gendo couldn't deny any of the questions he was being asked by the police inside the room, and he couldn't tell them what he believes to be the truth without sounding crazy. Even if he answers their questions, he was still going to face serious repercussions. He knows that Shinji did the unbelievable, gathering these six Infinity Stones and doing whatever he wanted with them, screwing him, NERV and SEELE royally with his decisions. His one saving grace was that, somehow, during the shift in the planet's changes as everything Second Impact caused came undone, a report of a woman laying outside of Unit-01 was found, resembling an older version of the First Child, minus the albinism. Somehow, his son restored his wife to her previous state, rendering the Evangelion useless for being a multi-purpose combat weapon.
But even if Yui was returned to life and an explanation could be given for why, he wasn't getting any absolution; his son exposed him along with everyone else involved in the causing of Second Impact and the Human Instrumentality Project. The only ones likely to get a walk or do significantly less time than he and SEELE were Fuyutsuki and anyone else that was forced to do their bidding.
"…You know, your silence is only making things worse for you, Ikari," the police officer tells him. "Even if you don't talk, you're looking at life behind bars or the death penalty. Why don't you tell us what we already know?"
If you already know, then what would be the point in telling you anything? Gendo thinks.
The door to the room opens and another cop walks inside.
"You didn't try to talk him into a plea deal, did you?" He asks the other cop.
"He hasn't spoken a word since he was read his rights."
"There's no point in him talking, anymore. We got everything and more from the other guy."
"Fuyutsuki?" Gendo finally speaks up. "He talked?!"
"Told us everything we needed to know. He's getting the good deal."
Fuyutsuki had exposed everything? He had betrayed him, NERV, even Yui…for a reduction in his sentence?
"That traitor," he calls Fuyutsuki.
"When you're facing multiple counts of crimes against humanity, among other things, trust is actually hard to come by in the business you got into," the cop sitting across the table from him says. "Talk or don't talk. There are worse things to befall one than thinking the silent treatment will save you from the repercussions."
-x-
"…I can see how this would look to you," Ritsuko says to the police officer interrogating her, showing her a recording of herself in an explicit scene with Gendo, bringing into question many things.
"And how does this look exactly, Ms. Akagi?" He asks her. "Because from what I'm looking at here, it looks like you had to sleep your way up to your position at NERV."
"My relationship with him is strictly professional."
"Professional, hmm? I take it that his son knows, then?"
Of course, Shinji had no knowledge of the affair; his only function with NERV was to pilot the Eva, something he only did once and then ran off, never the wiser to anything. Or so Ritsuko and Gendo had believed due to the fact that the Third Child demonstrated no interest in other people's lives.
"Why would he tell his son about us?" Ritsuko questions.
"Yeah, not everyone's son would react the same way if they learned that their father was cheating on their mother who was claimed to be for ten years, something that messes kids up when they learn of one lie after another and lack the capacity to forgive their parents for their transgressions. A kid that has been lied to, left alone, kidnapped, sexually assaulted, becomes a father before the age of ten, has his kid taken away from him for a year, reached out to by his father for some cruel agenda, leaves the next day and is unheard from for days going on weeks, then one of the craziest things ever happens where an orphanage gets demolished in a bizarre fashion, which happens to be the same orphanage where his kid was sent off to, and a bunch of orphans were taken from it, liberated if not kidnapped when it was learned the personnel there were abusive, and now all of this. How do you explain this?"
But even if Ritsuko were to try and explain, it wouldn't suffice to get her a walk from knowingly aiding a man who was trying to get away with a dozen crimes.
"Quite personally, if that second Earth up there is an act of the kami, I'd reckoned that the Ikaris' son and granddaughter up and relocated as far away from them as possible," the cop says to Ritsuko. "That's as free as a young parent can be to raise their child however they want to and not be scrutinized or criticized by the opinions of others."
-x-
Some would say that the hardest part of doing anything is simply getting started, taking the first step. But once you did so, the rest became easy over time. This was still the case for Shinji and Rumiko, as they were taking the next step, which the first step into what was to be the rest of their lives free from their respective pasts with their previous relatives; they both knew that there was no going back for either of them, but Rumiko had firsthand experience with living on your own, something Shinji had only recently started to experience. But it was to be a new beginning for the quartet. A better beginning.
"This looks like a nice neighborhood," Shinji says as he, Rumiko, Shado and Toya were standing in front of a rural Japanese village by the ocean.
"There used to be fishing villages before Second Impact," Rumiko tells them. "This is one of them. Maybe some people that need the work are living here right now."
"Mommy," went Toya, pointing to the proof that the town was not empty: A woman riding a bike down the street. "People."
It puts a smile of Shinji's face; they were on the new Earth, away from their relatives that harmed them, and they were starting anew, making their own way through life on their terms.
"Maybe we should look for an empty dwelling," he tells them.
"That's a good idea," Rumiko replies. "There are plenty of empty houses here. We just need one that is right for us."
"Can we try that one?" Shado suggests, pointing to a building with a blue rooftop. "It looks like nobody is living in it."
Rumiko uses the Time Stone to perceive the past and present of this building, seeing that it has been vacant since its creation along with the rest of the new planet. Not only that, but it was pretty much the kind of place you could call home.
"Let's go check it out before staking our claim to it," she tells them.
To be continued…
A/N: It was always an idea Shinji just had when it came to the stones being used to achieve something great, but now that it's a reality for them all, it just comes down to the next step in a new direction. What do you think of the fact that there are nine planets in the solar system (ten if you still choose to view Pluto as a planet)? NERV and SEELE are in the bad light and there is nothing but unknowns to come. Until the next chapter, yo.