Creation began on 04-26-19

Creation ended on 04-28-19

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Grimoire of Evangelion: Silver or Lead, Silva

A/N: How far is anyone willing to go to do something for better or for worse?

It was unbelievable to fathom that the Black Bulls had gotten a few stars after capturing just a handful of members belonging to the Eye of the Midnight Sun, and it infuriated Nozel, Nebra and Solid Silva to no end when part of the very reason the worst Magic Knight squad in the kingdom was attacked was due to three of its worst members. They couldn't understand why any group of rogue mages saw two of the Ikari family and the Anti Magic boy as a greater threat than the whole lot of Magic Knights put together, especially the veteran knights, who were the oldest and most powerful of them under the Wizard King.

"…So the Midnight Sun feels threatened by House Ikari and a kid with a type of magic that cancels out other forms of magic," said Nozel to his fellow siblings in his room. "Unfortunately, House Ikari was marked the second they returned, so that makes them the problem of the nobility, not some pack of freaks."

"Except we can't lay a finger on any of House Ikari after our failed attempt to attack the matriarch," went Nebra, reminding them that they had no grounds to pick a fight with a family that was more powerful than theirs. "That witch let us go with a warning. If we try something else, we'll be in trouble…and I do not want to jeopardize my chances of increasing my rank and my power."

"Whoever said we had to do something directly?" Solid questioned. "If for some reason or another, House Ikari's members of the Black Bulls were to be met with…some sort of accident…by maybe a person with no control over their magic…in a training exercise, we wouldn't be directly involved, would we? Not if we were simply…suggesting something of the sort to our black sheep sister."

"You want to use Noelle as a Trojan horse to get rid of the Ikari boy that defeated Rades and his aunt?" Nebra responded. "What makes you think that Noelle even has the ability to cause an accident that could affect those two?"

"If she was able to do it before, then she could surely do it again," Solid stated simply.

-x-

Noelle was woken up in the middle of the night by her Communication Magic Tool glowing. Who could be calling her at a time like this? She got out of bed and picked it up off her desk, opening it and a small visual of someone she didn't expect to speak with for quite some time showed up in front of her face.

"Nozel?" She spoke. "Do you know what time it is?"

"Oh, this is a serious matter, Noelle, and it can't wait," her elder brother responded. "Normally, Nebra, Solid or I would handle something like this, but we're unfortunately…unable to, so this is something we feel that you can do."

"What…what are you talking about?"

Because she was still half-asleep, Noelle didn't understand what Nozel was trying to tell her.

"The matter concerns those two Ikaris in your squad," Nozel told her.

Shinji and Suki? Noelle thought, still half-asleep. What about those two? The boy's aunt's a noble that lived her entire life among the commoners and her only nephew is some kid that isn't a noble but isn't considered a peasant, either, but something in between along with his mother. What could possibly concern them to you three?

"…The thing of is…if they were to meet with some sort of…accident…they wouldn't be considered much of a problem for anyone; nothing that's too serious, but serious enough to make sure that they wouldn't be much of a problem for anyone," Nozel suggested. "Think about it, Noelle; if they got hurt by you during a training session, and it was accepted as an accident, we'd be grateful to you for humiliating them. House Ikari isn't all that powerful, anymore, so they're not all that special. Why would anyone continue to see them as special? You make them see that…and you'll likely find fortune in your future, sis. You set them straight…and you'll be the better one."

It felt like a form of bribery; if she were to hurt Shinji and Suki, her own squad mates, then her own siblings would show her respect. But if she hurt them, then it would weigh heavily on her conscience because she decided that wanting her family's acknowledgement was more important to her than the respect of her fellow squad mates.

"Think about it," Nozel told her. "You decide what you'll do."

Then the call ended, and Noelle was left thinking what to do about this. Did she dare to cause harm to the two Ikaris that were part of the Black Bulls and make it look like an accident…or look the other way regarding her family?

Hurt Shinji and Suki; make it look like an accident, but it wouldn't truly be an accident, she thought, looking out the window of her room at the night. I'd know…and I'd be unable to look them in the face with complete honesty.

Still…to want her siblings' respect and acceptance…would've helped Noelle, maybe even begin to fix her familial ties with House Silva. For her, to be accepted by family was what she longed for ever since she was old enough to recall their disgust towards her.

"Hmm?" She went, feeling a degree of magic outside, and decided to look out the window. "What is that intermediary doing?"

She saw Shinji, looking as though he were being led away from the Black Bulls' hideout by his Guardian of the Void, which was walking towards the lake. Suddenly, she saw it stop…and look towards the hideout. She ducked her head to avoid being seen, but it probably saw her already. There was a silence that lasted longer than five minutes before Noelle looked out again, and saw the Guardian and Shinji standing on the water in the lake.

"Incredible," she expressed; she hadn't seen anyone with Water Magic display the ability to walk on water as though it were the ground.

-x-

"…Do you think she'll do it?" Nebra asked Nozel and Solid.

"If she does, then at least she'll have done us a favor by hurting two of House Ikari's members," said Solid. "If not, then that'll just prove she's more pathetic than we knew she was."

Nozel didn't deny this assumption; but if Noelle did go and cause a painful accident to occur to this Shinji and Suki Ikari, then House Silva would at least be down two members of House Ikari. How they would deal with the other three, it would have to come at a later time when they had another way to do away with these people.

-x-

Walking around the village of Hage at night, Rika Ikari found the silence of the outside much better than the quiet of her house. With her grimoire out, a page flipped over and she activated a spell that spread through the air with her voice.

"Dream Song Magic," she uttered, "Melody of the Past and Future."

As she sang her chosen melody, it reached across the kingdom faster than the winds could flow. It was a melody of life's ups and downs, of friendship, family, truths and lies, acceptance and rejection, and faith in others when you lost faith in yourself. And as she sang, her feet began to carry her into the air whilst wings of light formed on her back.

Anyone that bothered to look up at her to find where the source of the strange melody they were hearing came from, could've mistook Rika for some sort of angel because of the wings.

-x-

"…It doesn't look like they're up to much from their respective points of view," said Misato to the others as they were looking at the five photos that depicted each of House Ikari's members doing different things at what appeared to be the same time at night.

On the upper left, Tenshi seemed to be in a pocket dimension with these two people that appeared to connect with his grimoire, wielding swords and thread against him. The photo on the upper right side depicted Rika with wings of light, looking as though she were some sort of singing angel. On the lower right was Suki, asleep with her grimoire lying beside her bed. Under Tenshi's photo on the left showed Yui reading through three different books at the same time. And under Rika's photo was Shinji, looking as though he were engaged in some combat training with his Guardian of the Void…on the surface of a lake beside the Black Bulls' hideout.

"Ikari-Kun is getting better at using different forms of magic," went Rei, seeing that Shinji was likely using water-based magic in order to walk on the water in the lake.

"Maybe, but what is his mother up to?" Asuka questioned, noting that a woman reading three different books had something else on their mind. "And his aunt, she's just sleeping."

"Probably spent the day outside doing nothing," suggested Gendo, not in the least interested about his sister-in-law's habits.

Fuyutsuki then turned the page, seeing an old photo of what was likely an infant version of Yui herself, wearing a blue dress and playing with building blocks instead of a doll nearby; he had to assume that Yui wasn't much of a girl with an interest in dolls than some other girls her age were likely to have been. Beside that picture was one of Shinji, apparently having a heated conversation with the white-haired girl that was somewhat like the Second Child.

"…Silver or lead, Noelle," he looked up and thought he heard Shinji's voice just now.

"Did anyone else hear that?" He asked.

"I did," went Kaji. "Shinji said 'silver or lead'."

"He was saying it to her," Ritsuko pointed out to the white-haired girl.

"…You'd be surprised at what I learn from my grandmother, aunt and uncle when my parents aren't the best source of wisdom, considering their absence," they heard Shinji's voice again, like he was in the room with them. "It's derived from the Spanish phrase 'Plata o Plomo'. Basically, it only works when there's usually someone more powerful, more influential, or just outright dangerous, and they give someone else two options. Only two potions: They can either accept a bribe and look the other way, the option of silver…or end up dead somewhere and forgotten about, the option of lead. You're given the choice to do something that goes against your conscience or lose everything else because someone else felt threatened by what you could do, even if you didn't know who they were, just so that they could keep their position of power or something similar."

-x-

"…What choice would you make," Noelle asked Shinji that morning by the lake, "if you had to do something that was…against your conscience?"

"First, I'd reevaluate everything, weigh every option," he explained, "and then, deciding on the choice that will follow me to the end of my days, I'd tell the person that tried to bribe me into taking the easy way out that they can take that way themselves, because there is no true way to benefit from something that comes at the expense of another's pain and suffering. So…I would take the lead…and turn it against the people that intend to use it on me."

"Sounds like something you'd do."

"Well, you did ask me, Ms. Noelle Silva. And this is something that can happen to anyone, no matter who they are, where they're from. And from how Tenshi tells me, only a coward or someone that has nothing left to lose and everything else to gain…would take the bribe that promises something, even if it's only a little of what one really wants rather than fight back, even if it seems hopeless. You, you're a noblewoman, so you never have to worry about losing much of anything. Your family is of a high status in the kingdom. Me, I'm somewhere in the middle, looking to find my way and live my life however I choose. I could've joined the Golden Dawn like my mother did, but instead…I chose the one squad I actually want to be a part of because it will give me the foundation I need to reach the top of the metaphorical mountain in front of me. Instead of what might've been the easiest route to take, I wanted the route that gives me a challenge to overcome. You have a challenge you want to overcome, too, don't you?"

Noelle was taken aback by his question.

"What do you mean by that?" She demanded him.

"You want to become better," he explained as he got up off the ground…and walked onto the water. "Last night, Guardian came out of my grimoire again and insisted that I do some more training with him. Since I wasn't tired, I accepted his suggestion, and on the way to the lake here, he stopped for a moment, looked up at the hideout. I asked what he was doing, and he told just me that one of my squad mates will be at a crossroads…and that I would have to decide whether or not I would help them choose the path they want to take. Maybe he knows more than he lets on, but I think he was referring to you. So…do you have a personal challenge you want to overcome in the future?"

Noelle thought back to the earlier days of the previous year before House Ikari returned, when she was still struggling to get a grasp over her magic control. All she had was one spell during that time at her disposal, the Sea Dragon's Nest, and it was only good for defensive purposes.

"I want to control my magic better," she expressed. "I want to become better."

"Need a sparring partner?" Shinji offered.

To be continued…

A/N: Until next time, I'll let you readers wonder what choice Noelle will make in the future regarding what her elder siblings are trying to make her do for them. And as for Shinji knowing what he knows, who's to say that Rika, Tenshi and Suki, that is when they saw him for as much as possible, didn't impart him with their knowledge accumulated during their exile from the Clover Kingdom, and he took their knowledge more than anything his parents could've hoped to impart him with, which would've been less than what they had? See ya.