A New Cause

by Traitor of All Traitors

Where the madness ended, a new darkness will begin, one that leads to light…if those that are tasked with leading the way can endure the wrath of those that stand against them…as well as each other. The Angels descend, the dead talk, myths and legends come to life, and judgment comes to more than just Japan. All of the world isn't safe…but is it in any greater danger than before?

10. Seisui

Creation began on 05-24-14

Creation ended on 07-06-14

Neon Genesis Evangelion

A New Cause: Seisui

A/N: You gotta love the Japanese dictionary for translations on the Internet.

Much of the personnel in the Geo-Front were displeased with the fact that there were fifty-eight criminals running around in Tokyo-3 above them, all for the purpose of luring Death into a trap set up to ensnare him. Among those that were worried about their own safety in the potential presence of these murderers and rapists was Mana Asagi, who had no self-defense training, despite her years abroad in the States with her family. This meant that if she wasn't careful, or in the presence of moral people, any number of these bad men could do whatever they wanted to her and be on their way to do something else…and she would probably be dead.

"…Of course, the base is off-limits for them, leaving them with just the city," she sighed, trying to catch up on her medical studies in her quarters "But you might as well have them living in a house across the street from you…or right next door."

Unable to concentrate, she closed her medical book and set it down on her desk. It had been two days since the criminals were unleashed upon the city without people, and Death hadn't showed up; either he was conscious of what was going on…or kept his distance until the Angel, whom the criminals were informed to stay away from, was under siege by external harm. She felt that, if she could, she would praise the horseman for keeping away if he did know NERV was waiting for him to come by and play their executioner. But even two days seemed like a long time for any of the Four Horsemen to know that there were people in one of the six places on the planet that were, until who-knew-when, supposed to be devoid of human life like the tarnished environments of the pre- and post-Second Impact world that humans couldn't survive in without the aid of science…and even then, that would've been just as temporary as a mild case of the flu.

-x-

"…I'm surprised you've not gone back to Tokyo-3 to clean out the people that didn't take the warning to heart, Death," Mother Gaia expressed her subtle disappointment to the Japanese boy that lacked emotional expressions and a pulse, finding him sitting on a branch against a tree, overlooking the grassy field in front of them. "Do you care to tell me why you haven't done so?"

Death, not even bothering to look down at her, explained, "Earlier, I saw something happen while I was out looking for more criminals in China. It was like a glimpse of the future or a warning. I was separated from my brother…and forced to flee."

The divine woman then, as if by magic, levitated off the ground and onto the branch in front of Death, blocking his view of the land in front of him.

"Is that all of what you saw?" She questioned him, not trying to press him for more details, but wanting his honesty.

"No," he answered her, looking at her face. "Sachiel was assaulted by the blood-red behemoth, but there was no sign of the black one. Beyond that, there isn't anything else about it I can tell you."

Mother Gaia rubbed her chin as she thought about it for a moment, and then told Death that she would have the Restorative's network of eyes and ears bring more information on what was happening at Tokyo-3 before deciding on how to best handle the situation there.

"…In the meantime, though, you'll probably want to check out the criminal activity in the States," she informed him. "Despite the Second Impact, which was caused by the few of mortal society, causing much destruction to that massive landmass, the crime there is still rampant. For you, the prey there would be bountiful and ripe for harvesting souls to send to Hell."

"And you would have no problem with me doing this?"

"No, Death, just as I had no problem with the other criminals you have killed in your endeavors to make the decline of insanity and instability in this world lessen. As you make things worse for those that live for worse, those that live for better will know better, as things get worse before they start to get better for all."

"And…should Sachiel become endangered like before?"

"Well, I don't need to tell you or the other horsemen how to handle the troublemakers that get in your way, do I?"

"You don't, but suppose three out of four of us go there, since we can't ride together just yet, and we still find trouble? What, then?"

A soft breeze blew past them and raised the woman's blue skirt up a little, revealing the gray, baggy trousers beneath, and her red eyes became heavy with some measure of woe. Despite the progress that had been made, until the final two Angels had arrived at their chosen points in the north and south, they were all still enjoying what passed for a season. A season of atonement…and retribution.

"Then, should the few in the Restorative be unavailable to take direct action, I shall involve myself in your conflicts," she told him. "I shall aid you and the other horsemen against those that assault the Angels and endanger our goal to undo all the harm that has been afflicted onto the world."

Death wanted to question the potential danger of Mother Gaia involving herself in any battle or war with the mortals that stood between them and the beneficial future, but the goddess knelt in front of him and placed her left hand against his face.

"I wouldn't do any less than put you in positions of purgatory and then stand by and watch you get into a situation you couldn't get out of on your own." She told him, gently caressing his cheek, and the horseman responded by placing his uncovered, bony arm upon her wrist, just as the gauntlet's armor slowly covered the limb to protect it from harm.

-x-

Again, Mana found that the inside of the Entry Plug of Unit-03 was unpleasant. There was always something about the colossal cyborg that made her uneasy, like it was possessed and wanted more from her than just her sitting in its seat. But she was thankful that she was only participating in another synchronization test for the people in charge of making sure the Eva functioned properly.

"…Okay, Mana," she heard Maya say to her outside the plug, "we're done for today."

"Understood," she responded, and the Eva shut down.

She removed her interface headset and scratched her head. Another day…and another test that caused her some irritation.

Meanwhile, having finished her synchronization tests earlier on, Asuka, after showering off the LCL, snuck into Mana's quarters and looked around the things the twelve-year-old girl had around the place.

"What a pathetic kid the Fourth Child is," she told herself, looking at the old, medical journal that the blond-haired girl had been reading the first day she got here, and then looking at the Bible-like Book of the Restorative, and then her glasses. "Could this girl be any more pathetic? Oh, look at what do we have here."

On the desk where Mana kept her books was the heart-shaped locket that belonged to her mother, who got it a few years after her mother was killed from her father. This only made Asuka even more resentful and disgusted toward the Japanese-American girl. As far as she was concerned, Mana didn't deserve this trinket at all, and picked it up off the desk. Inside the locket was a picture of the girl's parents, probably from when they were dating because Mrs. Asagi looked a little younger; this made Asuka furious because she didn't even have a picture of her own mother.

As she stepped out of the Fourth Child's room, her ideas on how to dispose of the locket were raging in her brain. Should she throw it in the garbage somewhere, discard it within the city, or keep it hidden from Mana until she could find a pawnshop to sell it for a substantial sum because it looked like it was worth a few hundred dollars?

"Miss Soryu?" She turned to her right and saw Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki, who had seen her step out of Mana's room and holding her locket; he's seed her with it twice enough to know that it was hers. "What were you doing in Ms. Asagi's room?"

"Nothing," she lied, but the Sub-Commander wasn't convinced.

"Then why do you have her locket? Miss Asagi's not the type of girl to lend her precious possessions to anyone…and the last time I heard and checked, you two weren't friends."

"Oh, I, uh…"

"…She wants to go home, but nobody's home," they both heard Mana, sounding like she was singing. "Her feelings she hides… Her dreams she can't find… Oh!"

The sight of the two outside of her room, along with the redhead holding her mother's locket, surprised her. However, the fact that Ms. Soryu was in possession of something belonging to her was enough to lower her shock and include the feeling of anger toward her that was mild.

"Miss Asagi," Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki greeted her.

"Mister Fuyutsuki," Mana responded, "why does Ms. Soryu have my locket?"

"She had just stepped out of your room when I came by to see you."

Mana approached Asuka and held out her left hand.

"Give me my locket, Ms. Soryu," she instructed her, making no attempt to mask her irritation over having to say such a request to the redhead.

Whoa, Asuka thought, a little put off by the little girl's demand for what was hers.

"Miss Soryu," went Fuyutsuki, "it would be wise to give Ms. Asagi back her locket."

Asuka grunted and gave Mana her locket.

"It's not even worth much," she expressed, and then walked away.

Mana calmed down and put the chain around her neck. As much as she tolerated the redhead, this was an entirely new level of low from said redhead.

"I am so not going to make friends with her now," she said to Fuyutsuki, though it was meant more for herself than for him or others.

"I don't believe she understands the meaning of the concept," Fuyutsuki added.

"Oh, you said you were coming by to see me?"

"That's right. Are you…available for lunch?"

"Yes, I am. I, uh… I just need to make sure I left everything the way I left them in there," she pointed to her room as she expressed some concern.

-x-

"…Oh, and Death?" Mother Gaia stopped the horseman from riding off for a while longer.

"Yes?" He responded.

"When you come back… We should do something together."

"Like what?"

"I don't know. Something you never got to experience, perhaps. Maybe watch people play ball, listen to some music, try fishing, stuff like that." She offered; this was mainly because she wanted to see him relax beyond the whole concept of doing nothing.

"Yeah," he agreed with her, and then rode off; while he had accepted her suggestion, he wasn't sure he could enjoy any of what she offered to do with her.

As the fog gathered up in front of him in the forest, allowing him to traverse between Mother Gaia's island and where he was currently heading, he recalled a word he had heard from somewhere. It was called malcontent, and it was the same as discontent, or being unable to find joy in even the most basic of pastimes. The horseman had accepted that much of his own malcontent stemmed from his past, so nothing really brought him any joy, not even a smile upon his face, and he doubted that anything really would bring back the joy that was taken from him in life. No, that wasn't true, and he knew it. There was one thing, and one thing only, that would give back to the light that had faded from his eyes…but he would have to work for it before he could receive it.

The fog cleared up and the soft sounds Rumi's hooves made upon the grass were replaced with the hard sounds that only hard surfaces brought, and Death found himself in a completely new place. It was a city, but not one that he'd seen before. It seemed…more urban and less welcoming to those with souls.

Lead me to those that have hearts rotting with dark intentions, he thought, detecting the presence of cruel souls in the distance, so that they may know the fear of the end…and the burning embrace that awaits them in Hell.

-x-

"…Were you singing earlier when you showed up, Ms. Asagi?" Fuyutsuki asked Mana, as they sat in NERV's fountain garden.

Setting down her half-eaten dumpling, the blond-haired child responded, in a rather sad tone, "Yeah. I was singing to myself. It's not something I think I can share with people here. I did it while in the States, but Japan seems rather…"

"Rigid? Stale?" Fuyutsuki suggested.

"Yeah," she accepted. "Rigid because everyone seems to be too concerned with surviving to concern themselves with other interests…and stale because nobody seems to perform something a little different from what is seen and heard."

"I don't blame you for believing so. Japan was so much better when it had seasons and not these constant, summer days."

"I've experienced the seasons outside of Japan. Yet, no matter how many winters, or autumns or springs that I encountered over the last years of my life, there was always something precious that wasn't there, that might never be there."

"Do you…know any songs native to Japan, Ms. Asagi?" Fuyutsuki asked, hoping to change the subject.

"Not that many," she answered him. "Mostly foreign songs, like the one I was singing earlier."

"Would you…sing it for me, please?"

Mana sighed…and obliged the elder's request.

"Well, I couldn't tell you," she started, and Kozo Fuyutsuki slowly became entranced by her voice, "why she felt that way… She felt it…everyday… And I couldn't help her… I just watched her make…the same mistakes again… What's wrong, what's wrong now? Too many, too many problems… Don't know where she belongs… Where she belongs… She wants to go home, but nobody's home… That's where she lies, broken inside… With no place to go, no place to go… To dry her eyes, broken inside… Open your eyes… And look outside, find the reasons why…"
As she sang, the elder found it quite remarkable that a girl her age had developed such a talent. She probably wouldn't be able to write her own songs, but singing already-existing ones could probably get her somewhere if she ever wanted to be a singer and not a doctor. There was something about the way she sang that was, to him, like she could control you, but through mere suggestion, with a slight idea, instead of outright manipulation, and her voice had this measure of unfathomable kindness, this innocence that did its very best to remain in a world engulfed by sins committed by those around you.

"…She's lost inside, lost inside…" Mana finished, and then the feeling of entrancement Fuyutsuki felt faded from his consciousness.

"Wow," he uttered, slowly bringing his hands up to applaud her. "That was…very beautiful, Ms. Asagi. It was very beautiful."

"Thank you," she praised his compliment.

Unbeknownst to the two, from a safe distance, a lone individual had watched them and heard the young girl singing, and it angered her to no end. It was like the girl was trying to one-up her at any given opportunity that came.

That little bitch, she thought, and left before she could be seen.

-x-

On a small monitor in a large office, the Second Child was seen vacating NERV's fountain garden, unaware of the only camera system ever to have been installed there, prior to the massacre that Death's mortal incarnation caused in his ten-day quest for revenge against his parents. Unfortunately, the system was just a series of monitors without any audio capabilities, leaving it as nothing more than a bunch of glorified eyeballs made of plastic and metal. But what was noticeable was the long, conversation-like scene between Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki and Mana Asagi. NERV's current commander wondered if the previous commander had this monitoring system installed for the sake of eavesdropping, and it looked like it was meant for just that…and the new guy in charge had exploited such a resource that could come in handy for whoever had possession over it.

"I guess I should talk to them personally," he decided, and got up from the desk. "Why trouble Dr. Akagi with such a minute task when I'm more than capable of doing it myself?"

-x-

The strange thing about being in this foreign city to the Restorative Horseman of Death…was that his most recent murders of murderers, kidnappers, drug dealers and corrupted policemen seemed to go completely unnoticed by the public, which he never saw on the streets or looking out their windows. It was like the people here, due to reasons unknown, maybe his own actions committed elsewhere, turned their backs on the ones that did wrong…and left to their fates that he handed them with his blade and hands. Once he discovered that he was in the bountiful city known as Detroit in the state known as Michigan, he had amassed a new addition of thirty-two murderers and rapists, the most recent rapist having been killed by him after he had murdered a fifty-six-year-old woman that was walking her dog late in the evening. He found that the crimes committed here in the States were no different from the crimes he saw committed in Japan and China, and it seemed that the ones that reeked of sinful desires all spoke in the universal language of sinfulness: When you commit these unforgivable acts, anything and everything, anyone and everyone…was up for grabs, and if you don't get caught, there's a chance that you won't get caught.

But I'll catch you, he thought, kicking over the bleeding stump that was once the newly-deceased rapist, uncovering the dead woman that was just another innocent victim. You can't escape the wraiths of true justice and retribution.

Zipping and buttoning up her coat and crossing her arms over her chest, Death hid her fatal injuries and exposed breasts, sparing some humiliation (and himself some further disgust) and maintaining a sense of dignity. Then, he went over to where the head had rolled after falling from the neck of the rapist and picked it up. He walked to a nearby wall and smeared the fresh blood over the concrete, leaving another message in the series of bloody messages he had left at each site of his kills.

"No matter what you do, no matter where you go, the guilty will never escape Death. Retribution knows no bounds for those whose hearts rot with sinfulness." He wrote in blood, and then placed the head atop a trashcan.

But before he stepped out of the alley, he turned around and took one more look at the dead woman…and removed his coat, riddled with holes and cuts, revealing another of his shirts with dried bloodstains, bullet holes and other rips over, otherwise, intact flesh. He then placed the coat over the woman and took a moment of silence for her.

May your soul know peace, he thought, until the day comes where you can live again.

"Oh, my God," he quickly turned around and saw a black man behind him, dressed in a business suit and carrying a briefcase.

Death rose back up and stood in front of him.

"You," he uttered out, seeing into his soul. "You're innocent. Stay innocent."

Then, despite the fear that the man was showing him, Death walked past him and down the street. If the man knew about him through his actions against the criminal element, then it was a good, but if he suspected that he might've murdered that woman, he was foolish to believe that he could've done so to an innocent life that need not be taken for any reason beyond old age or sickness.

"Hello, police?" He heard the man speak out. "I want to report a rape and double homicide, please. Send every available unit in the area. It looks like a vigilante has made himself known in Detroit."

-x-

"…He's certainly different from Ikari," went Misato to Hyuga, noticing how the new commander was with others; some had actually expected the replacement to be as cold or colder than Gendo Ikari had been, even reckless in their decisions, but the new guy was actually easygoing and never raised his voice in threatening tones.

"Most of NERV didn't expect him to be…well, they didn't expect him to be friendly," Hyuga responded, as they saw the commander speaking with Fuyutsuki and Mana.

The two couldn't hear what their conversation was about, but, based on the look of surprise on Mana's face, it must've been positive.

"Maybe he's got a soft spot for Ms. Asagi," Hyuga suggested.

"Well, she isn't as bossy as Asuka…or as invasive," Misato expressed.

"…Are you talking about me?" They both heard Asuka, who intruded upon their conversation in the cafeteria, looking irritated.

"Um, no, Asuka," Misato was quick to lie. "Just the commander."

The redhead looked over towards the man that had replaced the previous leader that had been killed by the Third Child, and noticed his friendly chattering with the Fourth Child, and her anger at the girl boiled again.

"If she didn't have that lousy book, she wouldn't be so special," she uttered out.

"Who? Mana?" Hyuga questioned.

"Who does she think she is, anyway?"

"A young lady that wants to help little children when she grows up?"

"At this rate, she won't even have that future."

Meanwhile, Mana's conversation with Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki and the new commander had reached its end. The commander had suggested a talent show of sorts, something that could ease the concerns of the personnel now that Tokyo-3 had become officially off-limits due to each of the happenings that occurred: The Angel occupying its center, the criminals that were assigned to run amok on the streets in order to lure Death…and Death himself, who had declared himself to be serving a group called the Restorative, and declaring the cities occupied by Angels off-limits. He was hoping to see at least a small number of people (he says he can't really hope for more than at least fifteen) show some sort of skill they had to others to put smiles on their faces…and he was hoping that she would participate in the idea. If she did, that meant…sharing her voice with the agency.

"When will it be?" She asked him, considering participating.

"You'll know when I do," he responded, since he didn't have a date for it yet.

"Hey, everyone!" A woman in the cafeteria shouted, running with an iPad in her hands. "The NERV branches in the States got the new update! The Horseman of Death is in the States! He was seen in Detroit, Michigan!"

Gasp! Mana reacted in both woe and surprise. She had thought there were more criminals still on the loose in China for the horseman.

"Maybe crime in the States got worse to the point where he couldn't ignore it, anymore?" Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki suggested.

"It's possible," Mana decided, "but it's also likely that he's there as an excuse."

"Why would he need an excuse to hunt for criminals on that lousy continent?" Asuka questioned, which left the blond-haired girl mildly offended by her opinion of her father's homeland. "There's criminals here that he can kill."

"He could be aware of why the criminals are in the city," the commander suggested, "showing his intelligence of avoidance."

"The moment he suspects potential danger," Fuyutsuki added, "he starts to keep his distance. Being in the States would give him all the distraction from anything here."

"Unless the Angel was assaulted," Ritsuko spoke up.

"Endanger the Angel, the Horseman of Death will gather up his bearings and come save it from destruction," added Asuka, hoping to be able to pilot Unit-02 against the Angel once again.

"But should the Horseman of Death himself become endangered, the other horsemen will come," the commander expressed, "and then we'd have a repeat of the last battle without careful planning."

"…And in your brief encounter with the horseman," a newswoman questioned the man that had called the police for the murders, "did he say anything to you, threaten you?"

"He only said that I was innocent," the man explained his encounter, "and for me to stay that way. I took it as a literal warning not to commit any felonies…and he just walked away."

"And you made no attempt to try and stop him?"

"He was already dead. He can't be stopped, no matter what you try. If there was a way to stop, it would probably be to give him what he wants."

"And what would that be?"

"Everyone that has committed an unforgivable crime. Murder, rape, money laundering, pimping, domestic abuse, animal abuse. It's all the same to him."

When the news update switched over to the latest bloody message, Mana wondered how long Death could avoid Tokyo-3's new criminal residents until he had to come and protect the Angel. Also, she had to wonder how long she herself could stomach the fear of being in potential danger due to wanting to decide on what she wanted to do between aiding NERV…and avoiding the grim fate that Death passed out to all his victims.

-x-

It was mostly just rapists and murderers in Detroit, with some animal abusers and wife batterers. Death couldn't detect the presence of any authoritarian figures that abused their positions toward those beneath them. As he looked down at the streets below him from atop a skyscraper, he saw how very few people scurried about like the insects beneath their feet. The warm sun and the cool breeze never affecting his lifeless being, not even the passage of time showing any change in him…except for the power he was given by Mother Gaia. The stronger he became, the less vulnerable he seemed to be, but the less vulnerable he seemed to be…the sharper his his concerns became on guarding the Angel in Tokyo-3 from harm.

"The longer you're a Horseman of the Restorative, the stronger you become," Mother Gaia's voice reverberated in his memory. "You can still be harmed the way a living human can, but because you were a lost soul after you died, you can't be dealt with in any way a human can be dealt with. You can't get sick, you can't grow old and die of natural causes, you can't be executed against your will. So long as the Earth spins, so long as there is life being embraced by this bluish sphere that floats in the ocean of space, you, Death, and the other horsemen are immortal. These powers are both a blessing and a curse, viewed however you yourself sees them to be. Use them to your advantage in the path to changing the hearts of those around you. But remember: As powerful as you might become, none of you are without weakness. It's only when you are all together…that nothing will stand in your way."

But until that day comes, he thought to himself, deciding to venture to another city uninhabited by the Angels in these States, I must rely on the powers I have at my disposal to reduce the insanity that exists in this cruel world.

-x-

"…The plan to entrap Death isn't working," went SEELE 06 to the other members of the council in their latest meeting. "We have sent criminals to Tokyo-3, and he has relocated himself onto United States soil! It's like he's playing with us!"

"No, he's avoiding us until he has to defend the Angel," uttered SEELE 12. "We need to assault the Angel in order to ensnare Death. Send an Eva against the messenger."

"Yes! Order the strike against the Angels!" SEELE 04 shouted. "Endanger them and lure out the horsemen! Show them that we mean business!"

-x-

"…Very well, then," the commander sighed, hanging up the phone on his desk and looking up to Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki. "We attack the Angel tomorrow."

"You don't seem okay with this," Fuyutsuki informed him.

"How I feel doesn't matter," he countered. "I would, however, like your opinion about Ms. Asagi?"

"The Fourth Child?"

"Yes."

"My opinion is… She's a quiet voice in a noisy world."

"Elaborate, please."

"She wants to do good, but doesn't wish to hurt anyone, even those she's ordered to. She may even prefer to let Death continue doing what he has been doing since he returned from the dead."

"Wouldn't you?"

Fuyutsuki paused, unsure of how to respond to that question.

"I'll let you in on a personal secret. I'm sure that Gendo Ikari was not one to be trusted on any level, or one to desire any number of friends or allies, only pawns and tools, but I'm not that arrogant bastard. The Committee placed me in charge for a reason, and that was to clean up the mess Ikari made with his vengeance-driven killer. Now that he's returned from the realm of the dead with an ax to grind against those that do no good, I'm all for letting that horseman continue his personal reign of justice against the injustice that people suffer, if it means he keeps away from this facility…and those with much more to lose than just their lives. But the Committee demands that he be dealt with, and that's what NERV must do: Deal with the horseman…in any way possible."

"And you would willingly endanger the lives of NERV's only two pilots?" Fuyutsuki questioned.

"I'm NERV's replacement leader," he responded, "not NERV's cruel, puppet master. Should the Evas be endangered, the safety of the children is our only concern at that point. Live to see another day, you live to endure another day."

The commander's choice of words made Fuyutsuki wonder just how much of a moral individual this man truly was. If what he meant was true, then maybe NERV's new leader was probably the better choice than Gendo ever proved himself not to be.

-x-

"'…And at his touch, the slain warriors rose from their inevitable defeat and existed only to serve the one who ended them.'" Mana read in the Restorative book in her room. It seems like a Restorative Horseman of Death has power over the dead, and can manipulate their remains to serve their own needs. But can the current Death do that?

Knock-knock! A knocking came at her door.

"Miss Asagi?" She recognized the voice of Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki out there. "Are you there?"

"In a moment," she responded, bookmarking the page she left off on for later, and got up out of bed.

The door slid open and revealed the base's eldest adult. He seemed bothered by something.

"Is there something I can help you with?" She asked him.

"Unit-03 is to be backup for Unit-02 against the Third Angel," he explained her orders to her. "You're needed to be on standby should the Second Child become unable to handle the Angel on her own."

"Immediately?"

"Yes."

"Yes, sir." Mana then closed the door behind her and left to the women's locker room to change into one of her plugsuits.

"Miss Asagi?" Fuyutsuki stopped her. "Be careful out there."

She turned to face him and gave a small nod.

Meanwhile, in Unit-02, Asuka was primed and ready to get some payback against the Angel and the horsemen that left her defeated and bedridden for weeks. The redhead had sworn to make Death pay for her suffering, no matter what it took her to do so.

"The Fourth Child has been inserted into Unit-03," she heard the technicians announce. "Standing by."

"Launch Unit-02," Misato's voice ordered, and the red Evangelion was sent up to the city.

-x-

"…No!" A half-naked woman in her mid-thirties, trying to crawl away from the embodiment of her end of days, pleaded for mercy. "Please! I just didn't want her!"

Death, having forced his way into a gentleman's club in Chicago, the most populated city in all of Illinois, ignored her cries for mercy, just as he had done so with twelve other women that worked in the club, simply because of a crime they had each committed that needed to be resolved with their deaths.

"You had other options," he told her, raising his sickle up, the blade dripping blood onto the floor, as many of the men that paid to be serviced by the women employed there, watched helplessly as the very horseman they've been hearing about in Japan was here to execute more sinners. "You could've given her up after she was born. I've recently become aware that the States have what is called safe haven laws for children like your daughter, who was innocent. You could've left her at a police station…or a church…or even a firehouse, where you could just leave her and walk away, no questions asked. Instead, you chose to murder her eight months ago. Maybe your god will forgive you for your sin, but Death does not forgive the loss of innocence."

"Aaaaahh!" The woman screamed her final scream, and Death took her head off in front of the men, who still couldn't move.

He looked and counted at least three dozen men between the ages of twenty and fifty, and not a single one of them were guilty of any unforgivable crimes. Their souls were pure, unlike the women he had sent to Hell for not making use of the safety net a law provided for the legal abandonment of children. But as he made a move to get off the stage the dancers and strippers worked on, a vision, the same one he had experienced earlier, flashed in front of him. The Angel, Sachiel, was being assaulted by the red behemoth, with no sign of the black one nearby. He then realized that he couldn't avoid Tokyo-3 any longer, and had to defend the Angel, but this time, he was ready to evade getting stepped on.

He blinked his eyes and looked at the men that watched him murder.

"Let this be a lesson to each of you," he uttered out. "Any crime you commit in the future or the past, be it burning a building…or murdering a defenseless child that didn't do anything wrong to deserve death, I will not differentiate. If you wanna live to die from old age and other forms of natural causes, I suggest you do the one thing that will prevent you a visit from me. Otherwise, take your own life, because if you commit a wrong, the next time I see you, your demise will be just as merciless as the demise of these wenches that stole the lives of their children."

He jumped off the stage and walked past them and toward the destroyed door where he let five of the women leave because they were innocent (and had made use of the safe haven laws in the past and present). Stepping out from an alley and onto the streets, he waited for Rumi to arrive and take him back to the place where his mortal life ended.

"You felt it, too, I take it?" Mako, who manifested beside his brother's head, asked him.

"I did," he answered back. "Stay out of sight until this matter has been resolved."

"I always do," Mako told him, and then disappeared as the pale unicorn galloped over to her master.

Neigh! She reared up and got back down on her hooves.

Death got on the saddle and grabbed the reins before a gathering of fog appeared in front of him.

"Let's go, Rumi!" He shouted, and the unicorn reared up again before galloping into the fog, bypassing the boundaries between the two lands (where they was heading to and where they were leaving from), and arriving to their destination in the abandoned streets of Tokyo-3, just in time to see Sachiel get punched in the face by the red behemoth.

-x-

"The Horseman of Death has entered the city!" A female technician gasped, discovering a strange gathering of fog that had build up outside the southern side of the city, and the horseman had appeared out of it.

"Excellent," went Ritsuko, who couldn't wait to ensnare Death. "Let the criminals have their fun with him now."

Sitting from the top of Central Dogma, the commander sighed as the cameras that started working again a few days ago took sight of the dead boy that wielded a sickle the way the infamous Grim Reaper wielded his scythe.

"Have Unit-02 stand down," he ordered; with the horseman now present, all that was needed was to trap him, leaving the Angel to be dealt with another day. "The real problem has arrived."

"Asuka, stand down," Misato told the redhead. "Death has arrived. End mission."

Up in the city, inside her Eva, Asuka looked down and saw the boy and his horse, smirking at how easy it was to bring him here. All they had to do was attack the Angel, and he came running to protect it. It was pure genius!

The Third Child's about to get his, she thought.

-x-

BANG! Death was about to approach the behemoth with his sickle's blade extended to the length of his arm, when he was shot in the chest and thrown off his horse and onto the ground. It was unexpected because he didn't anticipate the behemoth being able to do such a move on him.

"I got him!" He heard a man shouting. "I got him!"

Quickly, he rose back up and saw on the railing of a building a man that wasn't from around Japan, wielding a rifle. Then, he looked at the regenerating hole on his chest where the bullet struck him, and realized that he had been lured. His previous vision of what had happened to Sachiel was really what was to befall himself, but he would not be hindered by any mortal hands that were stained with innocent blood as his own had been.

"Looks like for a dead person, you sure bleed like a live one," he heard another male voice behind him, and then felt a pair of hands grab him from behind, lifting him off his feet.

Raising his left leg forward, Death pulled it backwards, under and made contact with his attacker's family jewels with enough force that they were probably dead.

"Aaaaurgh! Urgh!" The guy screamed in agony, letting go of the horseman.

Death turned around after getting up again, grabbed the man's head and snapped his neck, killing him.

BANG! He was shot in the back and staggered forward, and then threw his sickle like a boomerang at whoever was dumb enough to assault him from a distance.

Swat! He heard the weapon make contact with nearby flesh and guessed that the attacker was now disposed of.

"You might've had luck against your previous victims," he heard a new voice say to him, as he found himself surrounded by several men whose souls were irredeemable, "but your luck's about to run out."

Counting at least twenty-seven of them, the horseman hunched his back forward; he was without hope of walking away alive, which gave him the advantage, and he had more souls to send to Hell.

-x-

Mana could see the fight between Death and the criminals present to ensnare him inside Unit-03 through the city's cameras. What she saw was enough to take her breath away: Death truly was an individual that existed beyond the boundaries humans were limited by.

Two men had jumped him from the front and back of him, but, even when deprived of his sickle, he wasn't anywhere near weak. He grabbed them by their arms…and ripped them off from their shoulders, spraying blood out in grim displays. Then, probably to install a sense of fear in each of them, his gauntlet's armor covering opened up to reveal a skeletal arm, stripped of all layers of muscle and tissue.

Whoa, Mana reacted to the sight of the bones that made up the horseman's right arm. Nobody alive can survive with no flesh on any portion of their body.

Within Central Dogma, the personnel present saw the same scene and were frightened to varying levels of the dead boy's position as the Horseman of Death.

"Tell me, Katsuragi," went Kaji to his old girlfriend, "did he ever do that before or after you shot him?"

"After spitting out a bullet, I was convinced enough that he was incapable of dying," she answered.

On the screens, Death ripped the head off another criminal before the previous two even fell to the ground and bled to death.

"Have them use the LCL bullets," Ritsuko demanded, and then seven of the men surrounding the horseman took out handguns and aimed at him. "Bullets hit him, they don't go through him. Let's see how he likes the sting of them."

Bang! One of them shot a round at Death's left leg, leaving a bullet hole in the kneecap area.

-x-

For half a moment, Death felt thrown off by the bullet in his leg, like he had eaten off more than he could handle. That was, of course, if he could eat. He took a step toward the guy that shot him, but then felt six more bullets dig into him, causing the same feeling as the first bullet. Suddenly, his left arm started to shake…and he had no control over its movements aside from raising it in front of him.

"Looks like the new bullets are working their magic on him," he heard one of the men say.

"Brother, you're not looking too well," he heard Mako say to him, appearing beside him on the left.

Looking to him, he said, "Get out of here. I can handle them."

But it was the way he said it that could've countered his reassurance that he had the situation under control. His voice sounded tense, concerned and like he was about to be sick. Whatever was in those bullets, it was affecting him.

"You need to get away from here," his twin advised him, worrying over his well-being.

Neigh! They heard Rumi neighing, as she galloped over toward them, knocking aside three men.

Recovering his skeletal limb, Death staggered to his horse and climbed atop the saddle, mentally straining to grab the reins and take his brother's suggestion serious while he still could.

But before Rumi could take off with her master and companion, a large, metallic net was dropped on them, sending a series of high-voltage energy surging through the construct.

NEIGH! Rumi cried out in pain, almost doing so because Death didn't show any verbal reaction to being electrocuted.

"Aaaaahh!" Mako screamed, feeling like the electrical energy was displacing him a little. "We gotta get outta here! Now!"

Rumi galloped away, but only Death was with her when she ran out from under the heavy net, leaving the ghost baby that was his twin behind.

"Mako!" Death finally his verbal reaction to something that had happened to him. "Mako!"

Mako fell to the ground, going through convulsion-like scenes as he started to lose consciousness.

"Run, Death," he groaned, and then saw only darkness around him.

-x-

"…No, all I'm saying is that if we should find people coming back into the cities occupied by the messengers of Heaven," went War to Conquest and Famine, sitting on large rocks in the open field, "we should really follow Death's example: We should condemn the guilty and preserve the innocent. Why let Death have all the displeasure of murdering the mortal souls that deserve Hell?"

"I devoured a guy that kidnapped little girls," said Famine, rubbing his stomach as his unending hunger came back to bug him because he wasn't out doing something necessary for the cause each of them were charged with in order to obtain their new lease on life after all was done and undone.

Further down the field where they sat were dozens of kids running around, playing catch and skipping rope with each other and several adults. There were even large animals that one wouldn't be around unless tamed or in cages, such as lions and tigers, rhinos and elephants, but they were very avoiding of the people, like they were afraid of them or something.

"I killed a guy that wouldn't leave Cairo when Sahaquiel arrived," Conquest revealed. "I wished he was just a guilty mortal instead of an innocent man that knew nothing of the danger he was in if he stayed in that city."

"You two had lives where the possibility of taking lives was just a line that didn't need to be crossed," War told them, but then saw Famine frown at him. "Even lives that were very short-lived, which made you very innocent and when you died, your souls still had a purity that stayed in death. Unlike Death and myself, of course."

NEIGH! The three heard a horse neighing, but it wasn't any of theirs; this horse's cries sounded more uneasy and worried.

Famine turned around and saw Death's horse galloping toward the caverns. But the unicorn was too far away that he couldn't see her rider clearly.

"I guess Death decided to come back to change his clothes again," he told the other two, turning back to face them.

"AAAAAAAAHHHH!" They heard a child screaming, and got up to go back to the caverns.

People were gathered around the underground halls and surrounding Rumi, who seemed agitated about something when they arrived.

"What's going on?" Conquest questioned.

"Something's wrong with Death," a woman answered, pointing to where Rumi stood.

The horsemen got through the crowd and found Death, but he wasn't what they had expected.

Death looked like he was rotting, going through rigor mortis, and the visible injuries showed no regeneration, whatsoever, leaking a strange, orange fluid.

"Someone get Mother Gaia," Conquest ordered, and grabbed Death by his shoulders. "War, grab his legs and help me carry him to the medical caves."

The knight aided him and carried him down the halls.

"Um, where's his brother?" Famine asked, noticing that Death's twin wasn't present. "Did any of you see Death's twin? He'd look like a ghost baby wrapped in a red blanket, his right arm exposed. Floating around, always by his side?"

The children and adults gave him the same response to this revelation: None of them had seen Death's twin brother with him when he returned. The Horseman of Death was alone when he returned in the state that he was in.

-x-

"…The Third Child might've gotten away," went Ritsuko, who seemed pleased with what happened in the last encounter, "but he left something of immense value."

Inside a cylindrical-shaped tank with an electrical current running through it, the spirit of Mako floated, slowly rotating so that he got a good view of the chamber he was present in. While the electrical current caused him some discomfort, he was strong enough to remain conscious in the presence of the faux-blond woman, Misato Katsuragi, Ryoji Kaji, Kozo Fuyutsuki, and a man he'd never seen before.

"Are you Mako Ikari?" Misato asked him. "Identify yourself."

"I was Mako Ikari," he answered her, "however long ago that identity even mattered. My name, my full name in this afterlife…is just Mako. No last name."

"Okay. Why have you and the Third Child come back from the dead?"

"Who's the Third Child?"

"Shinji Ikari."

"That boy died months ago. I don't know who you're talking about."

"You would address him…as Death," Fuyutsuki expressed.

"True, so such a name like Shinji Ikari…and such designations like Third Child…are meaningless to me. Shinji Ikari no longer exists…and never will again."

"So, some dead guy walks around wearing another dead guy's face?" Kaji questioned the infant.

"I'm guessing you don't believe in reincarnation. Or even an aspect of it. Death was my brother in life, so the facial identity remains the same for the time being. You can threaten me all you want, interrogate me all you want, but whatever knowledge you seek from me won't serve you in any way you desire."

As the interrogation went on, Mana Asagi sat in the cafeteria going over what had happened. She had seen Death experience agony from the LCL bullets he'd been assaulted with, and then separated from his twin when he escaped. She felt she was right to be worried about the horseman, seeing that he was merely doing his task for the Restorative, but those unaffiliated were more interested in getting rid of him because he was bothering them. It just…made her feel bad that she had found the method used to hurt him, even though he was already dead.

What have I done? She questioned herself, looking at her book that held the secret to causing Death his agony. Death can't be killed, but he can be harmed, and we harmed him. What do I do now?

"Not the sort of victory I was expecting," she heard Asuka say to her, getting her attention, "but your discovery had the horseman forced to flee and he left a ghost baby behind. He'll probably stay away now that he knows he can be harmed."

"Death might not," she told the redhead. "He may just come back…once he heals."

"…We have your brother's weapon, which he, inconveniently, left after killing a few of the criminals sent here to lure him," Ritsuko informed Mako, showing the ghost infant a photograph of the sickle NERV had been fortunate enough to pick up along with him. "So, he's pretty much useless with just his bare hands right now, isn't he?"

"Hasn't anybody ever told you that any object used by any person is just a tool?" Mako countered; he knew that the sickle simply represented the weapon of choice for his brother, but not his existence.

"Where is Death heading to?" Kaji asked the ghost infant. "Who does he work for or serve? What is his agenda? Can you tell us any of that?"

"Why, so you can interfere in the grand work that is the only real hope that's left for this world? I'd sooner choke on a pacifier than to betray my twin to those that turned their backs on him when he was alive. I'll burn in Hell before I tell any of you anything."

-x-

"…He had these bullets lodged in him," a man with a license to practice medicine said to Mother Gaia, holding a small bag with seven bullets that had been removed from Death's body. "They were seeping something into him. Some sort of fluid that caused his skin to react violently to sunlight."

"Did you submerge him in water after removing the bullets?" She asked him.

"As per your instructions, to let him revitalize and purge the foreign substance from his body."

"Thank you."

Mother Gaia then stepped into Death's cave and approached the pool where he was submerged. To know one of her horsemen had been severely injured made her worry for their safety. You could tell her not to care about them because they were already dead and their souls lost to the abyss of existence, but to her, they were no different from the children she bore ages ago or the children she raised as her own up to the present day. To her, they were as precious as the other people that made up the Restorative, the very keystone to the planet's salvation.

She dipped her left hand into the water and slowly felt around for a part of Death's body, finally making contact with what she assumed was his chest that had been stripped of his coat and shirt.

What happened out there, Death? She wondered as a tear escaped her eyes and fell into the pool. Who hurt you? And what happened to your brother?

Below the surface of the pool, the unconscious Death floated in between the surface and the bottom. There was no trace of air escaping his mouth, showing once more that he didn't require anything to live like a mortal did, such as oxygen. His gauntlet's armor covering was in a constant rotation between hiding his skeletal arm and exposing it, as though it couldn't make up its mind. The injuries on his exposed flesh were slowly regenerating; the cool water and the removal of the bullets filled with LCL were a contributing factor in his regeneration. In due time, he would be like new. All he needed to do…was revive under his own power.

"Mother Gaia?" She turned to see three men in robes behind her, carrying a black trunk. "You had asked us earlier to bring this here?"

"Yes," she responded, gesturing to where Death had his discarded shirts in a pile. "Just set it down over there. Death will surely get to it in another time."

"Yes, ma'am," they uttered, and set the trunk down near Death's pile of discarded shirts.

-x-

"…While they didn't capture Death, they captured his companion," went one the protegees under the SEELE scientists to Yui, informing her of the latest happenings in Tokyo-3. "A ghost baby. Can you believe that? This kid could've had something straight out of the comics as a companion, a talking bear or a gremlin, but instead of those, he's accompanied by a ghost baby."

Somehow, Yui had to wonder if this "ghost baby" NERV had in their custody…was her late firstborn out of the twins she had years ago. And if so, why would Make be with Shinji, who, beyond a doubt, went straight to the underworld, only to come back again.

Within the chamber where her children's remains continued to be regenerated, she stared at the infant that was once her Mako, named after her grandfather who passed away a year before Second Impact. He had made more progress in the last two days, with a body almost regenerated from the years of being preserved and the fatal, accidental dropping that had killed him. You almost couldn't tell he was dead, anymore, unlike his little brother, Shinji, who seemed deprived of his grim nature in his lifeless state of being. The baby looked almost as thought he were asleep, oblivious to the world around him.

Then, she looked to Shinji's remains, remembering the day he revived and spoke for a short while. Even now, she couldn't understand what he meant by what he had told her. She checked his vitals and recorded the new updates of his respiratory and cardiographs for later, seeing an increase in blood pressure and decrease in breathing.

The flesh is weak, seeking release, let it die, she repeated to herself, trying to understand what her son was saying that day.

-x-

"…He's not going to reveal to us anything he knows that shouldn't be revealed," went Fuyutsuki to the commander in his office.

"Is such a state of existence even possible?" He asked the elder. "To exist outside the physical body and wander about freely?"

"There's no record of such a possibility. At least not any records available to learn from."

"Yet, in our custody, one person exists outside his body, tied to one that has one that can't quit."

We might be messing with forces we have no right to mess with, Fuyutsuki thought, wondering how holding the soul of Death's brother hostage would effect NERV's tarnished state and unknown future.

Meanwhile, in the damaged chamber down in Terminal Dogma, where Mako was being held, said ghost was still in the company of Ritsuko Akagi, who took to frowning at him like he had done the wrongs his twin had committed.

"If you're going to say something to me, I suggest you come out and say it," he told the faux-blond woman. "It's not like I have anywhere else to be right now."

"You knew your brother was a killer, didn't you?" She questioned him. "You knew what he was capable of, yet you took his side, regardless of the consequences."

"If it was between my sibling that suffered in absolute loneliness and rejection from the people around him just because of who our parents were…and our parents that laid the groundwork for his short-lived existence that doesn't constitute as a life, my fate would've been tied to Death the second he was condemned," he told her. "Brothers in life, brothers in death, and brothers in purgatory. What's the point of living in paradise when a person born in Hell on Earth doesn't know how to laugh, how to smile or how to enjoy the passage of time when all they get from the people around them is hatred and neglect?"

"So, you pity your brother?"

"No. I pity the people that wronged him, that had to suffer some injustice because they never showed him an ounce of kindness. And I pity those that lived through his mortal path of vengeance against the two people that he spent the last days of his dwindling period of existence angry at for their sins against him that shouldn't have been committed to begin with, meaning I pity you."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Ritsuko uttered.

"You were warned by him through his bloody messages that any that got in his way of revenge against Gendo would suffer the same fate, and you didn't take the threat serious. Even when hundreds of people were getting murdered, left and right, when the police and contract killers were getting dealt with for their persistence toward Death, you stayed with Gendo. Because you didn't take my twin's threat serious, you became one of his casualties in his way to getting closure and justice. You became just another obstacle that hindered him, and that is why you lost your legs the day he came here to kill the man that didn't show him any measure of acceptance."

Right then, Ritsuko took out a controller and pressed a button. The cylindrical-shaped chamber then started to fill up with LCL, causing Mako to look down at the middle of the chamber that was just another glorified tank. Once it was filled to its limit, Ritsuko pressed another button, causing an increase in the electrical currents surrounding the tank.

"I'm guessing I struck a personal nerve that is the hurtful truth," he suggested, "is that right?"

But Ritsuko remained silent. She was certain that this former child of Gendo and his wife was a lot smarter than he let on, maybe even smarter than his brother, despite the gap in their lives.

"It's still your own fault," he told her, reminding her of her personal loss. "You have only yourself to blame for your current state. You could've left here. You could've fled with your life when you had all the ample opportunity to do so. But you didn't. Your relationship with Gendo was a factor in what befell your life."

Ritsuko then decided to speak up.

"Nothing would give me more pleasure than to watch your brother get executed right in front of you," she told him, "and then watching you suffer some sort of casualty because of your own involvement."

"You and countless others would give anything to see him suffer and call it quits," he countered. "But that would be no different from an ordinary daydream. It won't matter what you try, whatever methods you hope will work. You can't kill Death. It is impossible. No one that is mortal is stronger than Death."

"But if he comes here, I'll make sure that he's dealt with. There are always ways to deal with someone, even if they're dead."

"You're in this only for revenge. Getting revenge and living afterward will not ease your personal torment. After Gendo was murdered, my twin didn't seek to get away alive. He was already dying, so even if he did try to, he wouldn't have lived long to do anything else. He accepted his downfall and went willingly into the abyss of fire that was the Hell his soul was being pulled towards. As he went, I followed him. A great pain shared is a great pain lessened."

"You don't know what you're talking about."

-x-

"…You don't seem okay, Mana," went Mordecai to his daughter on the computer in her room.

"Death came back to Tokyo-3 after the creature NERV calls an Angel was assaulted," she explained her uneasiness, "and he got hurt. Possibly worse than hurt."

"But he's already dead, so how can he get worse than hurt?"

"He was with a ghost baby, and they were separated. A talking ghost baby."

"Could this ghost baby have been an associate of his?"

"I think this baby is more of a relative. One that matters to Death."

As they conversed through the use of Skype, the girl was careful not to divulge how close the ghost baby and the Horseman of Death truly were. She wasn't sure if NERV had methods of torture that would work on Mako, she was certain of one thing: If the two were very close as brothers were supposed to be, in life and in death, then Death would come back for him in due time.

"…Oh, I took the time yesterday to finish setting up your room," her father informed her.

"Oh? Well, thank you," she praised him.

"So…whenever you get over here, it'll be here for you."

"Thank you. I love you."

"I love you, too."

-x-

"…Okay, Death, I brought you over some medicinal herbs, even though you don't really require them," said a young woman of French descent, entering the cave of Death. "I know you can't really hear me, but it never hurts to chatter a little, so…"

She stopped the second she looked at the pool he was supposed to be recovering in…and found it empty of a body. She dropped the herbs and ran out of the cave.

"Mother Gaia!" She screamed. "Mother Gaia, Death is gone!"

When the maternal goddess was informed of this update, she had the other horsemen search the island, but they came back with no clue to where their fourth member was.

"He wasn't in the forests," went Conquest.

"I didn't find him by any mountains," added War.

"And I didn't see him by any water sources," Famine finished.

"We checked the stables where the horses are normally kept," said a Chinese man to Mother Gaia, "and Death's horse wasn't there or anywhere else."

"No one's seen his horse for over an hour after the majority of the Restorative had eaten dinner," Mother Gaia expressed, rubbing her chin in thought. "If no one's seen his horse or himself, then he's not on the island. He's out there in the world."

"Could he have recovered that quickly after being harmed by bullets that stunted his regeneration until they were removed and his wounds cleaned with water?" War asked her.

"If he's out there in the realm of mortals, then it's not his current state of recovery we should be concerned with. I'm more worried about his spiritual and emotional state of being."

"Then we'd best go find him out there," went Conquest, as he and the other two left the caverns to retrieve their horses.

"How will we find Death?" Famine asked him. "We can't detect him like we can each other."

"We just have to hope he leaves a trail of dead bodies to follow," he answered back.

"We'll have to split up if we want to find him quicker," War suggested.

"We'll start with our cities occupied by the Angels," Conquest considered, "and then we'll expand the search from there."

Stepping out into the cold night, the street were greeted by their white stallion, red, armored courser and skinny, black field hunter.

-x-

Having as escort/bodyguard with her was irritable, but for Yui, it became a necessity since she wanted to be outside from time to time, and it was only the third time she stepped out of the SEELE research facility in Nagoya. Ever since the crime in the city was reduced to nothing by Death, the secret society wanted to ensure that their assets were protected, and she, being the major mind and power behind the Evangelion program, was their most valued investment. The nightlife was entirely quiet with the absence of crime, and very, very few people were out, probably due to the fear of Death coming after them should they have committed a crime they needed to be executed for. And all Yui had done was go grocery shopping under a false identity to protect herself, as she wasn't much of a person regular people wanted to be around; with the revelation of her still being alive, she was looked down upon for faking her death and abandoning her son that grew up into one of the worst kind of monsters possible due to a complete lack of guidance or acceptance.

"Oh, crap," she looked up and saw her brother, Hei-Bai, who seemed surprised to see her…and disgusted to be in her presence.

"Hei-Bai?" She spoke up. "How have you been?"

Hei-Bai, with an irritable expression, uttered, "I was fine until thirty seconds ago. I was just on my way to the store. Now, I'm reconsidering my choice to do so tomorrow."

"Oh, come on, Hei-Bai, am I that awful to be around?" Yui asked him.

"Do you really want to know the answer to that question?" He countered.

"Have you been hearing about the murder spree that has been going on?"

"With a boy looked down upon by everyone traveling around the world murdering murderers and rapists, it's hard not to know about his actions that have been affecting things. As strange as it is, despite his behavior towards certain people, he makes a better difference dead than he did alive."

"But the way he's doing so is wrong."

"What are you going to do about it, huh? Ground him? Give him a time-out? You can't, really, because he's dead…and the dead don't listen to the living unless they want to. And he's not some toddler you left alone for reasons I don't even care for because they're not worth the pain and suffering he went through. You once said he stabbed you with a machete when he was alive, right?"

Yui didn't answer him, but turning away her face to the left was an answer in its own right. She could still feel the phantom pain of being impaled by Shinji, and the look upon his face when he harmed her; no amount of years spent in the Evangelion could erase the look of hatred he had in his expression…or the coldness that formed around his heart, hardened to protect him from feeling anything from anyone.

"Do you honestly think that he'd waste any measure of time listening to you now when he didn't back then?" He asked her. "It wasn't deadly force or natural causes that killed Shinji Ikari, just so that you know. It was something worse than either of those combined."

"What?" Yui asked him.

"It was betrayal, hate and neglect, a loss of light, the absence of hope and love, and the feeling of never being able to have the innocent life he had taken from him when two people that were supposed to matter to him left him alone. That's what killed him. And what's worse is that he died a long time ago. At least his heart, anyway."

Hei-Bai then turned away and left, leaving his sister to reflect upon his choice of words. Could he have been accurate on what caused her youngest son's demise? Did the real cause of his death not the physical abuse he went through…but the emotional scarring he had after being left alone? That would aid in understanding why he behaved the way he did before he died: There was no one to love him the way he needed to be loved…and she didn't give him enough love.

-x-

SMACK! A woman was knocked to the ground in park by a man. She looked like one of those amateur working girls that had very little experience in the field, dressed real well, looking lovely and with smooth, dark skin and brown eyes. The man that punched her was white-skinned, dressed in a blue business suit covered with a brownish fur coat, and wielding a cane with a diamond-coated handle.

"I've had it with you!" The man shouted at her. "I want my money now!"

The woman tried to get up and crawl away, but the guy, no doubt her pimp, struck her in the back with his cane.

"Aaaurgh!" She groaned, crying in agony as he began beating her with his cane.

NEIGH! They both then heard the sound of a horse nearby, and the pimp became concerned for his life. NEIGH!

"Oh, Hell, no!" He uttered, leaving the woman to suffer; ever since he heard about this mysterious dead guy that rode around the streets on a unicorn, he worried that he would be next on the kid's hit list…and he had a few dead reasons to warrant his own doom. "Oh, no, no, no!"

He ran out the alley and down the streets, sweating as fear consumed his conscious.

NEIGH! The neighing got closer, and the fear consumed him faster.

"Oh!" He gasped, seeing the sign of his doom just down the block from where he stood. "Aah!"

But there was something different about this horseman's appearance. It wasn't the lack of a shirt or coat or the sight of scars and bruises, but the look of his face that frightened him. It was like there was something possessing him, like some sort of wild animal or even a demon.

Death stopped his horse and turned to face the pimp, his eyes like white fire. Then, he jumped off onto the ground and approached him, hunched over like a predator.

"No!" The pimp tried to reason with him. "Don't, please! I'll repent! I'll repent! I'll turn myself over to the police! I'll serve life in prison! Just, please, don't kill me!"

Then, probably out of fear, he raised his cane and struck Death in his face.

Grip! Death grabbed the cane and snapped it in half! Then, he jammed the broken half into the guy's stomach with enough force that his left hand's fingers reached into his flesh.

"Aaaurgh!" The pimp screamed, and staggered backwards when Death let go of the cane. "Please!"

Death just looked at him, ignoring his cries for mercy, and then walked away; for some reason, the horseman didn't seem concerned with him living after being impaled with a broken cane, since his injury was most likely fatal. He returned to Rumi and jumped back onto the saddle and rode off.

The young woman stepped out of the alley and found nothing more than a body that was once her former pimp, impaled by his own cane. She fell to her knees and cried over him, knowing that he had done so many wrongs to get dealt with by someone that knew he was bad, but he had been good to her…when he had his good days.

Something was off with Death. In his perception, everything was…hazy…and the noises were beyond his comprehension. Nothing made sense to him. All around him, left, right, up, down, was haze, noise and unfamiliarity. The only things he was able to make sense of was that he had someone with him…but then they were displaced by outside forces. And because of them, something within him was unstable…and he didn't know exactly how to undo the damage that had been done.

-x-

"…All the Restorative scientists were able to confirm about the substance within the bullets we pulled out of Death," the same man that showed Mother Gaia the bullets that stunted the horseman's self-healing abilities within another cave, "was that it was similar to what most scientists described as the primordial substance that all things sentient are believed to have originated from."

The goddess held the small vial of the substance in front of her eyes and realized that it wasn't just a substance similar to what scientists called primordial ooze…but was something she had seen enough times in her past to know that it could hinder Death when he was made vulnerable. She knew the blood of Lilith when she saw it, but because the samples collected from Death were so minute, she had overlooked the severity of the revelation.

"But it's not just primordial, is it, Mother Gaia?" The man asked her.

"No," she told him, and clinched the vial in her left hand. "This is the ancient blood of a woman I have a history with. A long-lived woman that passed the blessing and curse of wisdom to her children, but the wisdom became tainted by those that started to abuse it over time. This is the very same blood that restored me to life…and made me a link to the past and future that lives in the present."

"And you became the mother of life on this planet, a role that had once been the other woman's?"

"Yes."

"Should the other horsemen be informed of this when they return?"

"Only that Death needs to be protected from this blood. They can't be harmed by this blood because, despite their being lost souls brought into a state of purgatory, their positions as the Horsemen of Conquest/Pestilence, War and Famine gives them a semblance of mortality."

"But Death doesn't have the same benefit as they do because…he's not alive? Not like they are?"

"That's right. This blood, combined with sunlight, would just cause Death a major problem. It wouldn't stop him outright, just…leave him susceptible to an enemy's clutches."

-x-

"…This sickle doesn't seem to have any sort of hidden features or anything to indicate that it's a danger to anyone," a scientist reported to Ritsuko, examining the weapon belonging to Death. "Not even a foreign energy signature. It seems to be nothing more than an ordinary weapon."

"Very well," Ritsuko responded over the computer screen. "Lock it up and we'll resume tomorrow."

Shutting off the monitor, she returned her attention toward Mako, who demonstrated an inability to move through solid structures, even when he was dead. The LCL showing detrimental effects to the ghost infant, weakening him to a small degree.

"The Third Child may have a variety of secrets for NERV," she told him, watching him slowly rotate in three-sixty angles. "But until he returns, we'll have to make do with you."

"You're only asking for trouble," he told her in response, rotating enough to face her. "There's nothing about Death that can be understood by science, especially your brand of science. There's no means to benefit from studying him, there's no glory to be seized by dissecting him. There's absolutely nothing to gain…except more pain and death from Death."

"That's one person's opinion, which doesn't have much value."

"No, it is a truth…which has great value to those that care for it."

"I'm starting to wonder if you take after your father…unlike your brother."

Mako then looked like his facial nerves and muscles contorted into an enraged expression that signified anger, and he uttered, "The only thing that could've ever been inherited from that disgrace would be his unwillingness to accept people for who they are. But that would be part of the nature versus nurture concept…with nurture being the deciding factor in everything that went down the way they did. I was unaffected by the passage of mortality's current version of nurture that my brother suffered, but my time in the afterlife helped me to see the cruelty that people inflict upon one another because of what occurred before and during the Second Impact. You know, as well as I do, that everything that has happened in the years after the dawn of the Twenty-First Century has all been the result of the misuse of power and authority, the lack of love and friendship that have been denied to many and the relentless torment that has engulfed society. A handful of people found what they believed to be their deity…and in their arrogance, tried to possess him, to make him their slave, and then let the gods above condemn them and others to their great suffering. It was because of their decision to try and claim a divine being that everyone, even the people that had absolutely nothing to do with what happened, was punished over a decade ago. People rose from their arrogance…and fell to an all-consuming despair. You can think you've survived and resurrected your society all you want until the day you breathe your final breath of life, but you've done nothing but deluded yourself into such a belief. You're not restoring the lands lost to war and pestilence, the lives taken by famine and death, and your science is like a poison because you can't really use it to help anyone!"

Ritsuko could've sworn that the way this infant spoke seemed to mirror the way that his brother had spoken prior to his death…and shortly after he had returned as something more than human. But he seemed different from the older-looking twin, like he lacked the cruelty that had consumed his soul, making his own measure of contempt toward people minor, and without the desire for vengeance. And what he said was not far from the cold-hearted truth than she cared to admit to herself.

"When I first saw you, I thought I should've been concerned for your safety because you could've made yourself a target in the eyes of my brother," he told her, "just like you did when you chose to ignore the signs that he meant serious business when he came to kill Gendo and avenge himself. But after such an extended conversation with you, I have a better clarity of you. I don't need to be concerned about your safety should my brother come to free me. It's actually much worse than concern: A person that seeks revenge from one that has already avenged himself and died, only to find that he decided that some loose ends needed to be dealt with to spare others the torment that he went through, doesn't need to be concerned about…but pitied over."

"Pitied over, huh?" She asked him, feeling disrespected.

"You're angry because you lost your legs to Death before he died, and you think that by harming a dead person that has no interest, whatsoever, in you will even the score. But it won't resolve anything. You hold onto your rage, it consumes you to the point that, even if you want to let go of it, it won't let go of you, not without a fight…and not without repercussions."

-x-

…This is Famine, went Famine, standing over the dead body of a well-dressed man with a young girl that had cried herself to sleep over him. I think Death was in the city I'm in.

Did Death kill in a different way? He heard Conquest's telepathic response.

Yeah, he stabbed or impaled a guy with his own cane, Famine responded.

I believe you, and I think he's still in this city. I'm across the city from you, standing beside another corpse. It looks like Death still has his agenda of killing criminals and crooked cops, but doesn't seem capable of performing his actions with basic methods that humans possess. It's like…he's an animal without a conscious. The guy he killed had a chunk of his neck ripped right off and bled to death.

War calling Conquest from the called Newark, the Horseman of Conquest and Pestilence heard the telepathic call from the Horseman of War. I don't think Death is in this city. All I see are people chatting on friendly terms, couples of a variety of races and sexual orientations making out on benches and behind bushes, and honest cops putting their lives on the line to ensure that justice prevails over all injustice.

Then get of there and bring your blades over to this city mortals refer to, by nickname, as the City of Angels. Death may still be here, but be on your guard. We don't know how he would react to any of us should we encounter him. Conquest informed him.

WHOOSH! The Poison Master turned around on the street and thought he saw something move past him, but saw nothing.

"Mother Gaia, help me out here should I encounter Death," he told himself, returning his gaze to the dead guy at his feet that had his neck bitten by Death. "May the gods have pity upon your soul for whatever crimes you might've committed."

He climbed onto his horse and rode down the street. The lead wasn't sufficient in finding his group's youngest member, but it helped to show him that the deceased teenager was around the city. All he and the other horsemen had to do…was find him.

"The previous Death never did anything like this before," he told himself, thankful for the lack of traffic on the streets. "Maybe it's because he didn't have a twin like the new one does. It looks like the new one requires his twin brother's presence just to maintain a semblance of what little sanity he had left in his mortal existence."

HE COULD NEVER LAUGH LIKE HE USED TO! He stopped his horse, turning his head to his left and right, not seeing anyone.

War? Famine? Did either of you hear anyone talking just now? He asked, sending his telepathic message to them.

Nope, I didn't hear anyone, responded Famine.

Nobody said anything to me after you instructed me to come to this city, added War.

I got a feeling Death may be extremely unstable, he warned them.

CRASH! He then looked up, seeing a woman and a man, half-dressed and terrified, falling from the window on the eighteenth floor of a building on his left side.

"Aaaaaahh!" He heard them scream, and then made contact with the pavement.

Thud! Their deaths were instantaneous…and their souls fading from their flesh as they left to the afterlife realm.

"Holy curare," he sighed; his reaction to murder having diminished so long ago that showing indifference toward newly-deceased victims was second nature to him, and he looked at the broken window that they were, apparently, thrown out of. "Holy curare."

He saw Death, possibly admiring a little of his handiwork, and then he removed himself from the room he was in.

I found Death, he informed the other horsemen. Attempting to halt and intercept.

He got off his horse and ran into the building, passing a dead doorman that had his head ripped off his shoulders, several more bodies left on the floor with similar causes of death ranging from ripped-off heads or limbs to impalement or simply having their hearts ripped out. Most of them probably led up to the eighteenth floor, but as he ran up the stairs they were laid out upon, he came across Death himself, between the ninth and eleventh floors. With a closer look at the horseman's face, Conquest was put off by his eyes looking like white fire, and the blood on his arms and torso made him seem like an animal that merely looked like a man.

"Death?" He said to him, hoping he could be conversed with.

He didn't respond. Instead, he merely did what was basic: He jumped at Conquest with an emotionless face and arms outstretched.

"Aaaaurgh!" Conquest growled and grunted, struggling to free himself from Death's grip to save himself from either having his neck snapped in half or his consciousness choked out of him. "Death! Stop this!"

He found Death unusually strong for a dead teen, but chalked it up to the way he grew up, possessing a strength that rivaled those that used substances to build up their own strength. And, possibly due to the ancient myths surrounding the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, which aided in the ancient myths of the Four Horsemen of the Restorative, Death was most likely far stronger than he let on, being the incarnation of the end of all things sentient. This meant that Conquest, even with his power over sickness and archery skills, couldn't stand a chance against the horseman if they were seriously pitted against each other.

Death's perception of Conquest was no different from his perception of everything else at the moment. But with a reduced measure of haziness, the Poison Master looked like somebody from his former life, someone that he despised. In his eyes…Conquest looked like Gendo, trying to ignore his responsibilities as what he should've been before becoming the tyrant he viewed him as up to his final moments of his pathetic life.

SLAM! Forced against a wall, Conquest's hood fell off, exposing his face…and allowing the Poison Master to have an unhindered, closer look at Death's burning eyes.

My God, he thought, seeing a reflection of what was being perceived by his fellow horseman. He's not looking at me… He's looking at the people from his past!

BLAST! Death was struck from the left by a streak of fire. He turned to where the attack came from and saw another hazy figure that looked like some of the figures he drew on paper.

Stab! With Death turned the other way, Conquest took the seconds available to him to stick him with three of his arrows that he willed into his left hand.

Death looked back at Conquest, but then started to feel his grip upon his neck loosen; Conquest must've summoned arrows coated with toxins that could weaken or disable people, and then lead them to a slow demise later on. He then fell to his knees, his hands no longer holding onto Conquest's neck.

"I am sorry, Death," Conquest apologized to him, seeing the fire of his eyes diminish as he started to fall backwards onto the floor.

"What'd you stick him with?" War asked him.

"Arrows coated with a poison that leaves people paralyzed like stone for a few days," he explained. "Where's Famine?"

"Keeping his distance outside."

They carried Death outside and saw Famine waiting across the street, turning his head left and right, looking down both ends of the road.

"Okay, I know this is obvious," he went, "but Death looks…well, dead."

The Poison Master and the Violent One looked at him with blank expressions for his obviousness, and then down at Death, who wasn't breathing a single breath to show signs of activity within him. This horseman was as lifeless as you could get in his position.

"Yeah, but for how long is unknown," War told the Great Hunger.

NEIGH! They heard the whining of a horse that wasn't any of theirs.

Suddenly, Death's eyes flared open again, and he kicked War backwards onto the ground before going over Conquest and landing on said ground, grabbing the Poison Master by his head and snapping his neck, knocking him out.

"Oh!" Famine gasped, and then saw Death's horse arrive and Death looking at him with those burning, white eyes. "Death, please, don't do what you're probably thinking about doing. We shouldn't fight each other. We're not your enemy. We're not your enemy."

Death was silent, and then Rumi approached him…and he got on the unicorn and rode off, leaving the rider of the black horse alone with the fallen comrades.

"I don't think you used enough poison, Conquest," went War, rising back up onto his feet.

"I agree," the Poison Master responded, feeling his broken neck regenerate.

-x-

"Hmm?" Mana mumbled, waking up and finding herself in a desolated countryside. "It's official: I'm becoming insane."

"No," she turned around and saw Death, dressed in a white, business casual shirt and black pants, covered by a black coat with fur trimmings on the hood and sleeves. "You're nowhere near insane. Good people don't go crazy."

"Then why is it that, every now and then I'm asleep, I dream of these lifeless places, and you're in them? Why is that so?"

"Probably misfortune," he suggested. "People can suffer misfortune from many things."

"But…I've only ever suffered one misfortune."

"One misfortune, a lifetime of misfortune, misfortune is misfortune, regardless."

"Rrrrrrrraurgh!" They heard a roaring from afar.

From behind a large hillside on the eastern side, the Evangelion-esqued harpy flew by and began circling them. It was then accompanied by several more of the same creature until Mana counted at least nine of them, circling them like vultures.

"You once mentioned that these were dark pieces of history trying to repeat itself, what part of history were you referring to, Death?" She asked the horseman.

"The darkest part of history," he answered her. "The end of history."

"The end? You mean…the very end?"

"The very end."

Mana worried over the possibility of these creatures coming down to bring about her demise in this realm of dreams.

"This world is a representation of the end of life on Earth, Ms. Asagi," Death informed her. "There's nothing left alive to undo. They're just deprived of purpose. The people that created them gave them no other purpose than to undo life on Earth. Quite the predicament for them. Some believe that everything that exists must have a purpose or they're discarded to the abyss of nothingness."

"It seems kinda saddening, honestly," she responded.

"It is."

She saw the horseman turn to walk away, but when she turned to follow, she noticed that his coat had two slits where the shoulder blades were, just in time to see a large pair of dark wings, like those of an angelic being, albeit almost withered or even ragged, emerge from behind him, and he took off into the darkness, leaving her behind.

What does it truly feel like, she wondered to herself, to have nothing after a life of loneliness and self-destruction, or even a life where all that you did or know was based on the concept of purpose? To be a consumer…and have nothing to consume. To be a destroyer or a killer…and have nothing to destroy or kill, respectively. That must be how Death feels every once in a while, as though he has no other purpose except to be a harbinger of the end. What must it feel like him, and the person he used to be before he went down the path of suffering, to have nothing to hold onto? No hope to inspire him, no friends to guide him…not even tender memories to visit…in the silence of the night.

She looked up at the sky the creatures continued to circle around in, ignoring her presence.

Not even tender memories to visit, she repeated, in the silence of the night.

-x-

"No luck with finding Death?" A woman of Hindu religion asked the three horsemen as they returned to the island the following morning.

"We searched," went War, "we found him, we knocked him out, but then he came to and knocked us out. He didn't even say a word to any of us. It was like he was another person, less than reasonable or something else beyond comprehension."

Conquest removed his hood and showed his face, his neck showing the slight bruises he got when Death grabbed him.

"Death is very unstable," he told the woman, offering her a hand in carrying her two baskets of vegetables. "He might be the strongest of all four of us."

"Some people believe Death to be the strongest force in the universe," the woman expressed, handing the Poison Master the basket in her left hand. "Death isn't just one of you, he's a universal aspect of existence. He existed before any of us did. He lived in the darkness ever since before creation. Until the gods declared that light would emerge from that darkness…and then life was born over the universe."

"With life in the mix, there becomes a delicate balance," War stated, having an understanding of the universal order between life and death. "With life, Death finds a measure of weakness that grants order and control, and with Death, life ends…and begins again. We live and die…and live and die another time in the future."

As they returned to the underground caverns, they encountered Mother Gaia playing catch with some kids of mixed cultures. She turned to see them and saw that only three of her horsemen were present, meaning that the fourth was absent from the group.

"Okay, kids," she told the children, tossing the baseball to a girl. "Another time."

She approached the horsemen and saw Conquest's neck bruises.

"How bad was trying to get him back?" She asked him.

"I should've used more poison to leave him crippled," he told her. "Three arrows coated with poison to paralyze a victim for a few days only left him out cold for a few minutes. His horse showed up, he came to, knocked us out and rode out."

"We spent all night looking for him after that initial encounter, but we couldn't find him," War added in.

"There were no other deaths beyond the ones he caused," Famine finished.

Mother Gaia sighed and placed her right hand on her side and her left on her forehead.

"Okay," she went. "Go rest up…and then we'll go out again tonight to find him."

"Huh?" War uttered, confused by her choice of words.

"As I once told Conquest…and told Death, as well… I wouldn't do any less for the four of you than what I've done already," she told him, meaning that she would go looking for Death with them.

"Do you have any idea of where Death is likely to be?" Famine asked her.

"No," she responded, "but we know how he operates now. If you want to catch a predator, start with the prey. Before he changed his hunting grounds to the States, he spent his time in China. And before that, he was in Japan, the nation of his mortal birth…and his dark rebirth."

-x-

"Do you honestly think that he'd waste any measure of time listening to you now when he didn't back then? It wasn't deadly force or natural causes that killed Shinji Ikari, just so that you know. It was something worse than either of those combined. It was betrayal, hate and neglect, a loss of light, the absence of hope and love, and the feeling of never being able to have the innocent life he had taken from him when two people that were supposed to matter to him left him alone. That's what killed him. And what's worse is that he died a long time ago. At least his heart, anyway." Yui recalled her brother's words to her from that night she saw him in Nagoya.

She sighed as she set her pen down on her desk occupied by scattered papers; her notes on the regeneration of her sons' bodies. If it wasn't her estrangement with Hei-Bai or her near-death experience with the Horseman of Death when he was Shinji, or even the estrangement with her father prior to his final breath, it was her own faults for these happenings. She even had a strange dream after her last encounter with her brother. It was quite unusual because she saw a little girl dressed in armor, holding a pair of hook swords, looking at her with a scowl.

The girl then raised her right arm and sword up and pointed over to a lake that was on fire. She went over to it and saw in the patch of water that wasn't ablaze an image of something she knew that never occurred in her life. There was the chamber where Lilith resided, several men and women scattered around the floor, unconscious, and herself standing in front of and several feet away from an unconscious Shinji in the comfort of the same girl with the swords, raising one at her in a threatening manner. It was quite unusual to find a little girl threatening her with a sword.

"You are not protecting him!" The little girl had shouted at her.

The image in the lake then changed from this scene to one that looked like it was out of Hell. There was fire and brimstone everywhere, with people screaming in fear, agony and hopelessness, and a giant of a being, cloaked in the shadows and writhed in the flames. And then she saw Gendo…in what was the worst situation imaginable for him or anyone. She saw him being…assaulted…by a woman that looked just like her, but was wicked in her appearance, like the darkness of Hell made her look like a deranged monster. And worse was Shinji (or maybe even Death) just standing there, watching the assault take place…with no emotion of any sort, as if he were truly dead inside.

"You didn't protect him," the girl in armor told her. "You left him, he suffered, he was made to kill those that hurt him, and he died alone. What kind of mother abandons her child and expects him to still love her like this act of cruelty never happened? You brought him into a life of Hell with a good-for-nothing falsehood belief that anywhere can be like Heaven as long as one had the will to live, but all he's known is Hell. And now…now, he brings Hell with him, wherever he goes. Nobody will be spared an eternity of retribution. Nobody that has done wrong, that is. You can run, but you can't hide, you can pray, but you won't be saved, and you can fight, but you won't win. You're as guilty as the rest of them were when they encountered him. In his eyes, you will get all that you deserve. He will condemn all that have their judgment day overdue."

She couldn't shake those words out of her head…or the feeling of impending doom if Death did find her. There had been an update in the news media from the States, one where Death had visited one of the cities and a gentleman's club and killed several working girls because they killed their children instead of using the safe haven laws. This had informed her that Death was absolutely merciless toward even women that bore children recently or even just a few years ago. Nobody that committed even a petty crime that resulted in the loss of life was exempt from his wrath.

What also caused her some discomfort was the update from NERV HQ that they had captured a ghost infant that had been with Death when he had been forced to get away from the organization and the hired criminals used to lure him to Tokyo-3. It sparked her curiosity as to why Death would be accompanied by ghost infant. It didn't make any sense to her at all.

Wait a minute! She thought, looking through her scattered notes for one of Shinji's drawings. I know it's here somewhere.

As some of her papers fell to the floor in front of the tanks containing her sons, she had found the drawing she realized would explain the curiosity surrounding her suspicion. It was the drawing he had sent to her after he ceased to be Shinji Ikari and became Death itself, depicting him in a city with a baby beside him wrapped in a red blanket. She understood it now. The ghost infant NERV had in its possession…was the eldest of her twins, Mako, who had accompanied his brother in this strange existence they had.

-x-

Brother, thought Mako, trying to let his consciousness drift a little, where are you? What is going on in your head? What is going on…in your heart?

Then, feeling the presence of an innocent soul, the ghost child opened his eyes and gazed through the LCL, seeing the same girl that operated the black behemoth…and trespassed into the city in order to meet his brother. She was dressed rather elegantly (though not like she was trying to impress anyone by dressing for success), wearing a green party dress with a pink bow on the back.

"I'm starting to wonder how an organization like this…or any number of people of authority, for that matter, can overlook making one as young as yourself bear the fate of many on your shoulders," he spoke up, letting her know his prejudice of NERV.

"It's…just the cards of the hand I was dealt with, I guess," said Mana to him; she had requested to speak with what she was informed was the ghost child that was associated with the Horseman of Death, but she had to keep her previous encounter with both secret. "So, are you an innocent victim of the horseman's killing spree, or are you just a cast off piece of his corrupted soul?"

Mako gave a small frown with his young face, but knew the girl was keeping up appearances in the presence of NERV, so he feigned contempt towards her.

"Like my brother, I was a victim," he uttered, "but unlike him, I got the lesser of the two forms of suffering one can go through until they reach the point where they can't take the cruelty they're dealt with any longer."

"Your brother? You mean…Death is your brother?"

"That's right."

"I didn't know horsemen were related to one another."

"They're not. Death and I are the only known exception to that rule. Are you here under orders to interrogate me, because that's not going to work well for any of us."

"No. Actually, I requested to meet you. It's not everyday that you get to meet a talking baby…or a talking, ghost baby, for that matter. Why did you stay behind when Death fled?"

"I didn't have a choice…and neither did he. Our being separated…was against our will, and that separation carries a high price. Not only for the two that took the first breath of life together the day they entered the world, but for any that either get in the way…or are just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Is it that bad for you two to be split up?"

"Nobody of mortality…unless granted the right to do so by divine hands…should try to touch the souls of those who are dead and lost. To manipulate a deceased soul…is to invite suffering into your future, just as it is to challenge the Four Horsemen…is to court your doom."

"It seems like everyone's being persistent in their own way. Nobody wants to die…but they don't want the world to end."

"The world can only end…when its spirit dies. You, me, my brother or anybody that had walked or walks the realm of mortality is of little importance to the will of the planet…and the universe. Nothing is meant to last forever in an existence where nothing and no one can ever live outside the boundaries they're shackled in."

"But Death doesn't have boundaries," Mana told him. "Death is eternal."

"Death is a part of the natural and supernatural order of things."

"Then why say that nothing is meant to last forever?"

"I'm starting to feel as though my intelligence is being disrespected by an innocent life that should invest herself in being with family and friends and not a government-funded waste of space."

"My apologies. No disrespect was ever intended."

"At least you're kind. Kindness is something most would take for granted."

Unbeknownst to the two, their conversation was being recorded by Ritsuko, who monitored the two with Misato, Kaji, Fuyutsuki and the commander.

"Well, it doesn't look like we'll get much of anything out of him," went Misato.

"I can't imagine getting anything out of a dead infant," added Kaji.

"Except his disapproval of NERV and similar agencies using children as soldiers," Fuyutsuki expressed, though he had the same disapproval.

-x-

Another advantage that was found being dead was that there was a completely unnecessary requirement for oxygen, allowing the Horseman of Death to hide in places that ordinary mortals couldn't survive in for extended periods, like underwater. This was where Death was hiding out at the moment, leaving his horse by the side of an unused path beside a small stream. Underwater, Death lied on the ground, looking up at the surface that was obscured. His perception was still twisted and his sense of higher reasoning was low, but being in the water seemed to be helping to restore his sense of hearing as the world around became quiet.

The silence was pleasant, though not the type of pleasantness he sought out at the moment, but it helped him a little. He would wait here until he was ready to go back out and try to piece back together his broken sense of awareness. All that made sense to him right now was a little voice…calling out to him across a vast distance.

Several small fish swam past Death…and then became lifeless seconds later.

-x-

"…I think she's wasting her time talking to a ghost baby that won't give any information on how to beat the horsemen," went Asuka, watching the recorded conversation between Mana and Mako.

"Maybe, but she did request to speak with him," Misato told her, watching the tape with her.

"…Well, uh, I have to go and get ready for tonight," they heard Mana say to the ghost baby.

"What's happening tonight?" He asked her. "Has Japan declared war upon the rest of the world for more land?"

"Um, no, nothing like that. There's this talent show that the commander's working on, and I'm participating, sharing a talent I have."

"Which is?"

"I sing."

"You look like you sing very well."

"Why, thank you."

They watched Mana turn to leave, leaving the ghost child alone to wallow in his isolation.

"So, Asuka," Misato uttered out, "are you participating in this talent show tonight?"

"No. I wouldn't waste my time with displaying my skills like that," the redhead expressed.

-x-

As the sun went down, Mother Gaia sat down on the edge of the cliff where her Four Horsemen had met for the first time after so many generations. Then she got up and walked away from the cliff to the meadow where she knew the other horsemen would be.

"Are the three of you rested?" She asked Conquest, who had showed up first.

The Poison Master removed his hood and spoke out, "It's hard to rest when being beaten by someone younger than you affects your sense of pride. But…if I could put a dozen or so arrows in Death to pin him down so we can help him…I'd probably sleep easier."

"You'll probably get your chance," she told him. "Providing we find him first."

"How do you find someone who lacks a pulse, who can't be detected through a spiritual sense, and can't be killed, no matter what you try?" They turned to face War, who showed up along with Famine.

"We find him through his prey," the boy dressed in rags expressed. "One of the men in the caverns said he had once overcome an addiction to unhealthy substances, but he still feels the urge to go back to his old habits every time. It's gotta be the same for our Death; murdering criminals and dirty cops isn't just something he's chosen to do to ensure that innocent people are spared the suffering he experienced, but it's like an addiction for him. Another woman, also striving to beat her old habits every day for the last eight years, says an addict loves their needle, whatever that means."

"If Death will go after criminals again tonight," said War, "it will be like an addiction. He can't beat his habit unless he seeks out help…or faces his demons."

"If we find Death, we may find where his twin is," went Mother Gaia to the three. "We find Death in the night, where the darkness is believed to, and proven to, cover the multitude of sins committed, mostly by those that do them to do right, we bring him back onto the path that leads to his salvation…and the salvation everyone needs."

Neigh! The grounded deity turned toward the trees as a horse appeared from out of the mist. Neigh!

It was unlike the other horses on the island, as it was Mother Gaia's. Nobody out in the mortal world had never seen a horse that possessed a blue coat of hair like hers. Like Conquest's, it was large and like War's, it was strong and possessed a wealth of experience, but like Famine's, it understood the value of power when united with the compassion to do good. And like Death's horse, hers was also of the opposite sex.

"Sapphire?" Conquest, who had seen this beast many times before, was in awe at her presence.

Mother Gaia climbed atop the saddle of her horse and looked down at the three lost souls.

"Let's go find our friend," she told them.

Conquest looked at War and Famine and uttered, "You heard her. Let's go!"

-x-

Rumi whined a bit, sensing a storm was approaching. She wanted to run, to gallop towards the unknown, but didn't want to abandon her owner, who still resided under the stream.

Slosh! She looked to the stream…and saw Death's head surfacing as he waded out of the cold water.

Neigh! She whined again, this time at the feeling of running. Neigh!

Death climbed atop the saddle and grabbed a hold of the reins and rode her toward the approaching storm that was filled with an unclean sadness.

-x-

"…Wow, Mana," went Kaji to the Japanese-American girl, stunned by her appearance. "You look so nice."

The little girl, dressed in a green gown with a leaf-like pattern, and her hair shining like diamonds, seemed like some sort of angel of unfathomable purity.

"Um, thank you," Mana told the man. Sometimes, I wonder if just looking nice is a crime, just because I want to look my best for the talent show.

She held onto her mother's locket for luck as she walked down the halls, passing Asuka, who looked like she was ready to jump out of her skin or severely harm someone who looked at her wrong.

"Is it just me, or is Asuka being extremely unsociable?" Kaji heard Misato ask him.

"She's just full of pride," he told her.

"Pride? More like anger. I consider it a miracle that she hasn't blown up in front of anyone."

Kaji sighed, as he couldn't help but agree with her. There were times where he wondered just how long it would be before Asuka felt intimidated or threatened enough to want to do more than just hurt someone that stood between her and satiating herself. And just a few times, he had to wonder if Ms. Asagi, who clearly had no pride in the Evangelions or even viewed herself as superior to those around her, might've been the first to fall prey to Asuka's wrath.

"Come on, they're going to start the talent show soon," he told her. "Maybe they'll have beer."

"No beer for me," she responded. "I've given up on it."

-x-

"…Ugh!" A man fell to his doom, his throat ripped out, spraying blood in the air…and on the face of Death, who dropped the piece of flesh he removed from the man's neck as he died within seconds of blood loss and loss of oxygen.

The horseman turned away from the man that was guilty of crimes the police, the honest-to-God civil servants of the innocent, probably wouldn't have been able to put him away for, including rape and drug running. His skeletal arm resealed in the armor of his gauntlet, as if symbolizing the periodical final judgment he gave out to his victims that deserved to meet their maker and be sent to where they feared going after death.

Caw! He stopped, looked up in between the two building rooftops and saw a few crows perched atop them. Caw!

Then, without even the need for a breath, he jumped up and landed on the rooftop on his left, frightening none of the crows. He had recalled, somewhere in time, a rhyme involving crows, but the memory. Like everything else in his present state, was reduced to a haze. Whatever it was the rhyme was to signify, he couldn't make heads or tails with an unclear conscious.

As the rainwater fell onto his face and washed the blood away, the horseman proceeded to seek out his next victim, another guilty soul that was beyond atonement.

-x-

"…Next up, we have Mana Asagi, sharing with us her talent for singing," went Hyuga to the personnel present to see their coworkers express some of their personal or hidden skills.

After hearing her name being called, the Fourth Child walked out from behind the opera-themed curtains that were brought in from God-knows-where and stood in front of the masses.

Whoa, she thought, forgetting just how many people had come to be entertained. Okay. Just…do what you're here to do, Mana.

She picked up the microphone that had been set on the stage for the participants to either introduce themselves or to vocalize their skills and took another look at the people looking at her.

"Hello, people," she kindly greeted them. "Here's something you've probably not heard of before."

She inhaled a new breath and noticed the Sub-Commander's face in the crowd.

"There's a saying old, says that love is blind," she sang. "Still, we're often told, seek and ye shall find… So, I'm going to seek a certain lad I've had…in mind…"

-x-

The rainy weather was cleansing Tokyo-3 of its filth and grime, or at least the filth and grime that could be washed away. However, the criminals that were left after Death's escape were scattered about inside buildings, trying to stay warm and enjoy themselves with their temporary freedom outside of their prison cells, as the city was deprived of electrical energy since it had been abandoned. Some degree of luxury they had was being able to hear the singing of the Fourth Child through the megaphones around the streets.

But as the darkness-filled eyes of the mortal scum were turned away from their duties, nobody was the wiser to the return of their enemy, their target and their one-way ticket to a better life…or to the frightful afterlife.

"…Looking everywhere, haven't found him yet… He's the big affair I cannot forget… The only man I ever think of…with regret…" The Horseman of Death heard the little girl's voice, just as he stood outside the store where he took the majority of his clothing requirements.

He then stepped inside the building…and then came out with a black cloak on.

"…I'd like to add his initial to my monogram," the girl continued to sing, and Death ran down the misty street, now with a different motivation.

-x-

"…Kami, I didn't realize she could sing so wondrously," went Kaji to Misato, seeing Mana pour her all into the song of her choice.

"…Lost lamb… There's a somebody I'm longing to see… I hope that he turns out to be… Someone who'll watch over me…"

"Her voice is…like a heavenly maiden's," Misato expressed, though she didn't want to admit that Mana had a voice that, to her, seemed both seductive…and comforting. "There's no way she could sing like that with a heart full of pride or violence."

-x-

Standing in front of the NERV base, Death continued to hear the girl sing her song, and he stepped right into the building, determined to seek out the owner of this heavenly voice.

"…To my heart, he carries the key… Won't you tell him, please, to put on some speed… Follow my lead… Oh, how I need… Someone to watch over me… Someone to watch over me…"

-x-

Fuyutsuki, the first in the crowd to stand up, clapped his hands and applauded Mana for her song, followed by several others that followed suit.

Asuka, who sat in the far back of the people, pouted as this applause went on. Oh, how she hated the girl. She hated her voice, her face, even the lack of vanity in her soul. There wasn't a single doubt left in her that believed that Mana being chosen to pilot an Eva was nothing more than an outright mistake somebody made.

"Thank you," Mana praised their applause. "Thank you all."

She left off the stage and ventured off to the restroom while she could still hold her drink from before she got dressed to participate.

"That was beautiful," the NERV commander praised Mana.

-x-

Death walked down the hall, detecting the presence of an innocent soul, one that was, eerily, familiar to him, but he couldn't place a sharp blade on where at the moment. Once he turned a corner, his hazy vision showed him a new sight. It was a minute person, obscured by his instability, looking like a winged figure dressed in jewels, with gorgeous hair and eyes that could pierce through decaying flesh. He could also make out a small object around the neck that glowed like the stars.

-x-

Gasp! Mana hesitated from taking another step at the sight of Death in the hallway.

Oh, God, she thought, looking at his present state, noticing the remains of blood of his face (there was probably some more blood on him, but it was hidden by the cloak). "Death?"

The horseman's emotionless face remained unchanged by her uttering his name, but the incarnation of the end of life raised his left arm up…and slammed it against the wall.

"Ah!" Mana gasped again, seeing him begin to smear blood on the wall, forming a message of some sort. "What do you want?"

He removed his hand from the smeared message, and the girl could only understand the most basic meaning of it: "Sing."

"Y…you want me…to sing for you?" She asked, making sure she got the message right.

Instead of speaking in response, Death sat down against the wall and crossed his legs, looking at her like he had the patience to wait for an eternity. Then, he noticed how she seemed uneasy and in need of something that had to be taken care of soon…and then looked down at her legs in realization. Raising his right arm up, he pointed for her to go handle her business.

"Thank you," she told him, and ran off to the bathroom while she could still hold it in. "Oh!"

Out in the hall still, just as the girl ran into the ladies' room, the Horseman of Death felt another familiar presence, one that he felt he needed to be around. Unfortunately, with the detecting of several more souls approaching where he sat, he realized that there would be no time for seeking out this other person…or hearing the singing voice of the girl. Upon the realization of these matters, he rose back up…and jumped up into the ceiling, leaving a hole in the sheet metal and tatters of his cloak as he entered a ventilation system.

-x-

"…Well, he was here, but only a handful of the scum of the Earth were murdered," went War, examining the mutilated remains of a man's body. "This body's got Death's signature, but the signature's gotten sloppy."

This is Conquest with Mother Gaia, one of the other three horsemen responded, and I think we found the last body Death left to be found. This poor bastard also had a piece of his throat ripped out.

Dying is painfully unpleasant when your time comes…and you try to fight it off, Mother Gaia informed them. The kill was swift…but this mortal struggled for more air, more time to live. And then, upon realizing that he wouldn't survive, he accepted his fate.

I don't think Death is in China, anymore, War gave them his opinion. The body count seems to be at least seventeen. Either he cleared out the crime-infested populace of China, or he left elsewhere to kill others that did wrong.

In a different part of the Asian country, the Poison Master and the Earth-bound deity left the corpse that Death reduced a guilty soul to, riding their horses into a body of fog that appeared out of nowhere in front of a lake.

-x-

Why would he want me to sing for him? Mana wondered, in the solitude of the stall. Unless, of course, he heard me singing…but him being in the crowd would be like letting a rabid animal out of containment or giving a dangerous, untested device that could be radioactive to a nonentity in public.

Once she had relieved herself completely, she got up off the toilet and pulled up her underwear, flushed the toilet and left the stall to the counter to wash her hands. She suspected that Death might've possessed some degree of super senses that enabled him to hear from across a vast distance, or maybe just what most people believed to be true when someone dies, that the dead hear everything, like a ninja or something.

And Daddy says I may inherit Mommy's height, she thought to herself, as she had a minor difficulty reaching the automatic faucet of the sink. She was small, even in her adulthood. Though, I wouldn't mind being a little over five feet.

As she finished washing her hands and stepped out of the bathroom, she found several technicians murmuring about the blood message written by Death on the wall…but no horseman to actually pin the message to. All they really knew was that someone had left a bloody word on the wall…and when she looked up, she saw a small hole in the ceiling.

Oh, no, she thought.

"Miss Asagi," one of the men caught her attention, "did you see this earlier?"

"No, sir," she lied to him. "I just got out of the bathroom."

"Those thugs running loose in the city can't even do their only job right," one of the women expressed. "They let the horseman into the base!"

"You don't know for sure if he's even here," a second woman told her in response to her fear.

-x-

"…All we have for certain is a word written in blood, similar to the ones the Horseman of Death leaves at some of his scenes of violence," Fuyutsuki told the commander, "and a hole in the ceiling, leading to the ventilation system. There was some ripped material found in the hole, but we don't know if it's from clothing or from the vents."

The commander thought about this new update and decided he needed a one-on-one conversation with NERV's only ghost prisoner, as he might know something.

"If the infant's talkative, unlike the horseman, then he might talk," he informed Fuyutsuki.

-x-

"…Famine was right," went Conquest to Mother Gaia, standing just outside the northern entrance to Tokyo-3, "Death's trail of violence ended the second he came back here. The question now is why would he come back here? If there are some criminals left roaming the streets, he hasn't made any move against them."

"I don't think he came back here to kill anybody just yet," Mother Gaia told him in response, placing her left hand on the soaked ground. "Whatever's going through his mind, he may not be able to adjust properly. He could be trying to make sense of what is going on now, but he doesn't possess the slightest clue to deal with his current situation. That's why he needs assistance, even if he may have some clarity to disagree."

"Should War and I enter the city and take care of the situation?" He asked her.

"No," she answered, rising back up to meet him on equal level. "I will converse with the other deities back on the island, and then work on a strategy through the Restorative's nonentity members."

"But we could handle the trouble ourselves, Mother Gaia. There's no reason to endanger mortals that have greater resourcefulness away from danger that we can walk away from."

"That may be true, Conquest, but we must explore every possibility, take into consideration every alternative method that can be used. We can't use atrocity and mayhem to solve everything we're trying to undo, even if the world must be harmed further before it can truly heal. If we're going to do this all, we have to find innovative and subtle ways, as well."

The Poison Master sighed in defeat and bowed his head to her.

-x-

"…She has a beautiful voice, the little girl does, doesn't she?" Mako asked the commander as he arrived in the chamber to see him, making no effort to mask his irritation.

"Late this evening, a word written in blood was found on the wall," the commander revealed to the infant. "A hole in the ceiling's ventilation system was also found. The word was 'sing', possibly referring to the Fourth Child. Would you know anything about this? Have you attempted to contact your brother, making him come here to rescue you?"

Mako looked at the man and uttered, "I won't lie to you, but I've not. My link with Death was severed in excess the instant we were separated by the criminals you let infest the city above. I can't even feel my brother's essence right now. I did, however, try to see if I could demonstrate some form of interference with this container I was placed in. In the hopes that I could escape. I guess I'm very limited and minute in whatever abilities I possess. Never send a child to do an adult's job…and never send a mortal to do a lost soul's duty."

The commander's frown was mild, but almost like that of his predecessor's, only less severe, and he turned to leave the ghost child alone.

"Whether my brother comes for me or not will be up to him," Mako told the man. "You might've harmed him, but he won't be stopped for good. You can't stop him, no matter what you try."

-x-

They could search the ventilation system until they suffocated for all they cared, but the Horseman of Death was no longer in the vents. The instant he found an isolated place of which to escape, Death, or just the body that carried the disembodied essence of Death, climbed out and found himself in where he could only assume was where NERV kept its behemoths, the Evangelions, contained by large restraints integrated into larger walls and suspended in a strange fluid. He looked around and saw nothing to indicate that this place was being monitored by any means at NERV's disposal, be it through cameras or security guards, but the behemoth he stood in front of was very different from the two he'd seen before; he would've recalled an Eva colored purple and possessing a large horn like a demonic mask. As the walkway in front of the Eva was inches above the fluid that submerged the majority of the beast, this allowed Death to submerge himself in the fluid and hide underneath the walkway for a while, as he didn't require oxygen, allowing him to remain under it until he decided to reappear.

Slowly immersing himself within the fluid and positioning himself under the walkway, Death did the one thing he could right now: He waited. There was a time to rise…as there was a time to fall, and he had experienced both in such a short time period. He may have fallen from his grace many times before, but he would rise again. All he needed was what was demonstrated by him in his mortal past: His patience.

A/N: People rise and fall every day, and it's only by sheer will and determination that they try to rise again and try not to fall again. But how many times can a person rise up after falling? Peace out.