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?

18. Temet Nosce

Creation began on 01-26-15

Creation ended on 03-03-15

Neon Genesis Evangelion

A New Cause: Temet Nosce

A/N: Credit to DJexe for his effort to understand who was in the posted Pride and Punishment story. Also, credit to TheSkyKing for reviewing chapters one and four, Loopsey for reviewing chapters two, three and seven, Princess Unikitty for chapters three and four, D.A-H.A for chapter seven, Zeromaru Chaos Mode for the first chapter, OBSERVER01 for chapters seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen and seventeen, Kamen Rider Onyx and Seeking Professional Help for chapter ten, StraightedgeWingZero for chapters eleven, twelve and sixteen, cegi85 for chapter seventeen, and Djexe for reviewing EVERY chapter so far!

Conquest, because Mother Gaia told him to, was riding out of the fog into the streets of a Japanese neighborhood to find Death and provide backup if he needed such.

If this guy's like Death, then my arrows will have little effect on him, he thought as he was about to turn his stallion down another street.

CRASH! Something smashed out of a wall and onto the streets in front of Conquest.

"Urgh!" The person that was covered in debris groaned as they got up, revealing themselves to be none other than the late Gendo Rokubungi-Ikari. "Damn that brat!"

Conquest took out his bow and fired an arrow into the condemned soul's neck.

"Urgh!" Gendo gasped, and turned to face the Poison Master. "You?!"

Conquest shot another arrow into him and sent him falling to his left knee.

"Stay out of this, Conquest," they heard Death say to the Poison Master, showing up through the damaged wall, sporting a facial injury that looked as though his head had been cleaved in half in an attempt to behead him, but it didn't work out for whoever attempted to do so, as the injury had begun the process of regeneration. "He's mine!"

But Gendo, seeing that the chances of him enduring the wrath of two warriors under Heaven being slimmer than the ones he had against the horseman that his former son embodied, decided that he'd be lucky enough to escape the wrath of Death, the Endgame, and looked at a small shadow in a nearby roadway that he could use to get away.

"Another day, horsemen," he told them, and ran down the road. "I'll get you, Death! I'll get you!"

But Death didn't want him to get away, and went after him. He jumped at him, but once Gendo reached the shadows, he was gone, leaving the Restorative Horseman to crash onto the ground.

"He can hide in the darkness," he remembered the demon telling him as he got up.

"Coward!" He called Gendo for running away instead of playing their battle out.

-x-

"Urgh!" Gendo fell onto the ground in front of a cemetery, having not mastered this facet of his unholy abilities just yet. "I'll get you. I'll get you, you unruly brat."

As he got up, he stood in front of the destroyed tombstone of Shinji Ikari; the Restorative Horseman that used to be his youngest child had destroyed this tombstone because it was no longer who his previous incarnation was. But what sparked his own curiosity was that the grave was no different from Yui's years prior; the grave was just an artifice, with no real body buried.

-x-

As the sirens were heard, Conquest and Death disappeared from the streets before anyone could see them, leaving the mechanical horse to be picked up by the police…and hopefully disposed of. But what Death stayed behind for a few minutes to observe was the sound of several doors opening to signify that people were overcoming their fear of what was out there.

When people came out onto the streets, the Poison Master and Endgame were gone.

-x-

"…So, it was the late Gendo Ikari that killed these men in order to steal the basic prototype for the Evangelion?" Fuyutsuki asked Commander Chansu, still examining the damages and the blood that had yet to be cleaned up after the intrusion from last night.

"He's as every bit of the disgrace he is in death than he was in life," Commander Chansu expressed. "And the Committee chose him, initially, to run NERV? Now I know that they were blind and dumb when they gave him control of this agency. Ritsuko Akagi, she built that weapon that was supposed to expand the Eva's fighting capabilities. I think we need know just how powerful that prototype is so that we can make the proper steps on how to retrieve or dismantle it."

-x-

Mana found sleep to be a luxury she couldn't afford tonight, even in her father's room and the window blinds closed. It wasn't the fact that the entire neighborhood was put on edge because of the discovery of a mechanical horse that looked as though it was made of weapons and had the NERV logo on it, but the fact that she was unsure that the Restorative Horseman of Death had some involvement in whatever went down this evening.

"Daddy," she spoke up to her father on the other side of the room. "Are you asleep?"

"No, Mana," Mordecai responded. "Trouble sleeping?"

"Yeah. You?"

"Likewise, along with fear."

"Fear? Of what?"

"Losing you."

Mana sighed and clutched onto her locket as she continued to look up at the ceiling.

-x-

"And he's been like this since they got back?" Mother Gaia asked Famine, seeing Death pacing around his cave, periodically punching at several rocks in the walls with his left hand.

"His face doesn't show it, but he frightens me with his temper," Famine expressed his woe at Death to Mother Gaia.

"It's mostly self-disappointment than anger he feels," she explains to the horseman beside her in the cave they were in, watching Death through the flames of a candle. "Death, the Endgame just needs to vent out."

"How can you be so certain that all he needs is to vent?"

"You remember the signs I carved into the caves? 'Temet Nosce'?"

"I do."

"Just like you, War and Conquest, Death must know himself, comprehend what has gone awry and find a solution that he can manage with."

Within his cave, having shattered another rock with his left arm, Death continued to pace around the small domain that was his, venting his disgust over Gendo escaping from him.

"Of all the things he could've become," he expressed his disgust verbally. "Someone of the mortal realm goes and brings this failure back from the inferno abyss as one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Urgh!"

He smashes to dust another rock with his left hand.

Mako, sympathizing with his brother's anger over the disgust and disgrace that came with their former father escaping them, remained quiet and waited for Death to finish venting; when the younger twin was through being angry over this setback, that's when he would speak.

It was another eight minutes until Death stopped pacing around the cave, punching small rocks, and sat on the stone cot.

"Are you finished?" Mako asked him, lowering to meet his gaze.

"I am," he answered back.

"How do you feel now?"

"Disgusted."

"You know what I think will help remedy your anger over this?"

"Do tell me."

"There are still sinners among the world that you can condemn for their crimes. Murderers, pedophiles, crooked police officers, immoral people that will not atone for what they've done…and they still fear that you will come and pass the ultimate judgment upon them. You can do that, brother. You can do what those of the law can't or won't do without permission. You don't need permission to go after those that commits wrongs that can be righted."

Death thought about it, just as the samurai would, but without the seven breaths that signaled the making of the decision, and went over and picked up his sickle, which he wedged into a piece of wood. While the hunting of criminals would temper his rage, all he wanted was to find the damned man and send him back to his agonizing pit of eternity. And then fill his pit with additional souls of those that were damned for their sins, to keep him company and let him go insane from their screams.

"Where should we go?" He asked Mako. "Should we continue where we left off in China…or should we resume in the States?"

"I believe we should still teach our former roots that continue to commit acts of violence against the innocent that you will not let them live beyond the moment you choose to go after them."

"Very well," he agreed with him, and picked up his shotgun scabbard and strapped it on. "I should let them know that I've evolved."

-x-

"Gendo," Gendo heard someone speak to him as he hid in the sewers of what used to be Tokyo. "That was your first attempt to take down the Restorative Horseman of Death…and you failed utterly."

He looked to the shadows and saw a silhouette outlined by a silver tint.

"I can explain," he tried to explain his alleged failure to deal with his Restorative counterpart, but the figure fired something at him.

It was an arrow, with a three-sided, serrated arrowhead. It pierced him in his left leg, right through the muscle and bone.

"Aaaurgh!" He groaned, falling to his palms.

"Get over it," the voice said to him, and he looked up at the figure. "You know the consequences of your position as the Horseman of Death. Should you fail for the final time, the repercussions will be unavoidable, undeniable…and severe. You live by the order of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse…you will leave by the order of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Now, get up and get to work."

By the time Gendo rose back up, the figure was gone, and the message had been made heard to him. No thought in his mind was his own right now; as an undead under the servitude of the dark lords, he had no such right to private thoughts. He couldn't deceive his new masters or even abandon his new obligations without paying the price.

"If you fail us," he remembered being told by a mammoth-like demon after he was endowed with the power of the Apocalyptic Horseman of Death, "if you are unable to deal with the Restorative Horseman of Death, there will be no realm, no barren nation, no empty city, no closet where we won't find you. You think you know pain from heartache and being murdered? They will make you long for something as merciful as pain."

"Goddamn horseman," he grunted, and returned to the surface.

-x-

"…With some effort, Unit-00 will be battle-ready in at least two days," Commander Chansu informed Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki in his office. "The Committee has authorized the use of their new Dummy System."

"And it actually works?" Fuyutsuki asked him.

"With an increasing measure of success."

As the two men conversed over the status of the autopilot system, another synchronization test was being carried out by Ritsuko on the two pilots NERV had, with the Second Child trying to beat the Fifth Child.

While she recorded the levels of synchronization between the two, the faux-blond cripple had her suspicions that the boy wasn't who he appeared to be. But she kept her suspicions to herself for the time being, needing to be sure at a later time, just as the boy continued to sync well with Unit-03's core.

"…There's still nothing on the Fifth Child that we could find," went Fuyutsuki to Chansu.

"You're sure of this? Nothing?" Chansu questioned.

"Nothing. Just the DOB and nothing else to indicate that he even existed before we knew about him."

RING-RING! The phone rang, and Chansu picked it up.

"Yes?" He asked whoever was on the other line, and then his eyes widened and his jaw clenched. "What? When did this happen? Very well, then."

As he hung up, the look of the Sub-Commander's withered face brought the commander no comfort.

"That was the Committee," he explained. "An unknown source has, apparently, informed the Japanese Government of several NERV-related issues that have been brought into question."

But what puzzled Fuyutsuki a little was that, despite this revelation, Commander Chansu didn't seem all that upset.

-x-

When Mordecai returned home from talking with several of the neighbors, Mana, who was researching the happenings of last night on the Internet, greeted him.

"Hey, Daddy," she spoke to him.

"Hey, sweetie," he responded. "What are you doing?"

"Trying to find out what may have happened last night."

"Well, I spoke to some neighbors, and they all think the same thing. Whoever was out there was on the list of a certain someone that makes people feel safer by eliminating those that do wrong to those that have done nothing. And they had a mechanical horse that the police had to return to that paramilitary agency you left."

"But…NERV didn't have any mechanical horses."

"Maybe it was a top-secret weapon that you were never informed about."

"I don't know why, but the very idea of a mechanical horse just seems…too much like that graphic comic you caught me reading at the library and scolded me because it was too graphic."

"Mana, there is a big difference between comics that are safe to look at…and those that are less than safe to look at. Grandfather and I try to keep you on the right side of the line."

She sighed and realized that, while he was right about that fact, she still did something that put her life at risk during her time at NERV. She was sick with the cold by Conquest and she went into Tokyo-3 just to speak with Death.

"Daddy, there's something I need to tell you about," she said.

"What is it?"

"Before I left NERV, before they even allowed Tokyo-3 to become infested with criminals to lure in Death and hurt him… I got sick like the rest of the personnel…and snuck into the city to speak with the horseman, just to speak with him."

Mordecai, who should've probably been furious with her that she would risk her life, sighed and sat across the living room table from her.

"I think if Death himself hadn't told me himself the last time he was here, I'd be furious," he spoke up.

"Huh? Death told you I was there?" Mana questioned.

"Yeah, and you know what he said? He said I should be proud that I have such a strong-willed daughter…and one that faces a potential end, just to learn something about the would-be enemy, only to leave with an enlightened mind."

"Oh."

"I wanted to scold you for doing something so reckless and stupid, but Death asked me not to, that curiosity isn't a sin one should be punished for. I think he likes your tenacity."

"I get that from you."

"Your mother had it, too, though she claimed I demonstrated it more."

Beside Mana's computer was The Book of the Restorative, opened with a page marked. The pair looked at the book and the father wondered how the texts and pictures were getting to his daughter.

"I take it there's something new in that old thing?" He asked her.

"Just something that people with bad intentions could take advantage of in order to get away from the Restorative Horsemen. For some reason concerning tradition, none of the horsemen can perform any action that causes one to lose their life on holy ground. They…can't risk disgracing what little sanctity that dwells within their impure souls that they seek to sanctify by serving under Heaven."

"I don't know, Mana, that sounds like something from Highlander. The immortals couldn't fight on holy ground. Even films with vampires or demons had levels of limitations or vulnerabilities whenever holy ground was involved."

"But if such a thing is true, Daddy, then if Death were to go after whoever he had to in order to punish them for their crimes, and they were able to get to a church or a shrine, even a cemetery blessed by people, there would be nothing he could do them without disgracing himself further on a spiritual level. The bad people would be protected from him."

"Maybe, but as long as people that do wrong don't desire to seek atonement for their sins, they're unlikely to find shelter in churches or temples unless it were to atone. And, as time progresses and changes things, including what is recorded in historical documents, this rule will always be around: If a rule can't be broken, then it can surely be bent."

"Like a loophole."

"Exactly. It's been done before in the past. People that become versed with rules will try to find ways to work around them by testing their limits. If a rule were given to prevent a particular man from picking fruit from off a tree to eat it, then a way to bend that rule would be…"

"To have someone pick the fruit off the tree for you to eat it."

"That's right. He would then be able to eat from the tree, but having not picked from the tree, he can't be charged with breaking the rule. The same sort of loophole would apply if a rule were given to me that says I can't walk into a store. The loophole? You or your grandfather could walk in for me."

"Then…the loophole for Death would be…to remove the person from holy ground…while they're still alive…and deal with them on grounds that are not holy."

"That's right."

"But Death… Death doesn't strike me as an educated person, even if he does look the type in his appearance and his speech."

"Maybe his intellect is found in other ways."

Suddenly, Mana's grandfather came in and said, "Whoever made that mechanical horse had better take some responsibility for its theft and disposal."

"Hopefully, it'll be disposed of," Mordecai told him, to which Mana agreed.

-x-

"…Since it was the first prototype that achieved some success at working," went Yui to the SEELE holograms in her meeting, "the Dummy System had to be modified to work with the Eva at a basic level to ensure compatibility."

"And with a streamlined upgrade, will Unit-00 be capable of dealing with the Angels?" One of the members asked her.

"Yes," she answered.

"Very well. With the rest of NERV's secrets exposed to the public, we will have to accelerate our timetable and advance further. The people responsible for this revelation will be found and dealt with."

"And the horsemen?" Yui asked.

"They shall have trouble of their own in due time."

-x-

The men and women of the densely-populated city of Macau, China were running across the bridge as they tried to get to safety across the Ponte de Amizade bridge into the city to evade the evolved Horseman of Death, who fired an unmodified Uzi into the night sky as he rode atop his pale and winged dragon.

"Surrender your guilty!" He shouted at them. "Give me your murderers! Your rapists! Drug dealers! Give me all of your guilty so that I may pass judgment upon their blood-stained souls!"

As people ran for the nearest form of shelter they could, the pale dragon set her claws on the ground so that her master could get off and walk the streets to his destination: The guilty souls he would condemn to Hell to preserve the innocent.

He stood in front of them as they continued to get away.

"Kneel before Death!" He shouted at them, but they continued to run. "I said…KNEEL!"

They stopped running and screaming, and lowered to the ground, whimpering in fear of the horseman.

"Is this…how the innocent should feel?" He questioned, walking through the legion of people. "Is this…how even a person that has done no wrong to anyone…should be in the face of one that brings the end to pain and suffering? It is an unwritten law, an unspeakable rule…that none that are innocent should be made to suffer for the actions of those that are guilty. A man rapes a little girl and claims she brought her disgrace upon herself for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, a working girl, a prostitute, a disgusting whore murders her baby instead of leaving them at a firehouse or a hospital where she could've just left them anonymously and without the fear of persecution, and a father abandons his son and has no contact with him for years, calling upon him years later, only to exploit him, thinking that he will jump for him when he calls. And then, there's the pro-lifers, people that believe that abortion is murder when a woman's right to decide not to go through with a pregnancy is their choice to make, not the choice of those that would rather see a new life come to fruition, unaware of the shame or agony they may bring upon others. Those that sin and refuse to atone for their crimes…will walk over the innocent until they themselves sin or breathe their last breath. If you're innocent, you have nothing to fear from me…but if you're guilty of any wrong you've committed, past or present…then I'll allow you ample time to pray to whoever your deity is before you leave this world for good. I can smell the guilty bunch of you trying to hide within the innocent bunch that outnumber you. I am the judge, the guilty are the criminals, the innocent are the jury…and court is in session."

He replaced his Uzi with his sickle…and stopped in front of woman being held onto by a man on her right side.

"Are you innocent?" Death asked her, pointing the back of his weapon at her.

-x-

The human-sized prototype of the Evangelion weapon had finally been returned to NERV HQ, and tied with heavy chains and ropes to keep it from moving.

"Doctor Akagi, I want this thing dismantled by the end of the day," Commander Chansu ordered Ritsuko when the weapon was brought back to the room it had been locked in.

"Is that really necessary?" She asked him.

"You want to risk the Restorative Horseman of Death or his allies deciding that they may want it for themselves?" He challenged her. "Dismantle it. Immediately."

As he left the room, several workers, armed with tools designed to dispose of the weapon, came in.

"Dismantle it," she sighed, and they began to get down to work on disassembling the prototype.

"Are you not concerned that the Committee will want to see the technology used in creating this prototype used on a larger scale?" Fuyutsuki questioned Chansu, who was going over the notes that documented all that was included in the weapon.

"I've done my own research on such weapons," he expressed his own opinion. "It would be time-consuming, days, if not a month or so, to construct just one, and the Evas are already burning through resources and energy. Even if such an additional weapon were to become useful, sometimes, just sometimes, less is more."

"They may not like this."

"I'll more than happily explain how a man they once entrusted this agency to came back and stole NERV property."

-x-

She didn't like the idea of invading his privacy, but Mother Gaia just wanted to see how well Death was venting his rage over being unable to deal with the demonic embodiment of the fallen soul that was once associated to him by blood. And she was impressed that he had returned to claiming the souls of the guilty that roamed the planet. But his current way of doing so had shown her that he was becoming a bit more efficient in his methods, rethinking some of his way of thinking, tightening his grip on the immoral…and showing his compassion towards the innocent by sparing them, since he was not interested in harming them unless they got in his way.

He's in Macau, China, she saw the buildings and the Asians that were present, and her Restorative Horseman of Death, walking around the people as they were on their knees, anticipating their final breath as he moved about, speaking words of retribution or mercy.

She saw how he landed merciful strikes to the air around the women, whom soon began puking up blood as their bodies rejected whatever pregnancies they were going through, how he condemned several men for beating and raping defenseless women by either decapitating their heads…or putting a bullet through their hearts and letting them bleed out, and even cracking the skull of one guy with his right hand for not disclosing to his former love interest that he had a contagion that couldn't be treated with existing practices of medicine…and because he preferred bareback riding.

Nothing is sacred from him, she thought, watching through the candlelight as Death allowed a couple to walk away after he murdered a man behind them, as they were innocent. He sees the innocence in people's hearts, but wants those around them to see that innocence for themselves. Those that survive an encounter with this horseman will try all that they can to avoid seeing him again should he come after more souls that have sinned.

-x-

Emerging from the shadows of an alley, Gendo saw Death performing his intolerable actions that drove SEELE to resurrect him as an Apocalyptic Horseman out of fear and desperation. Just as he saw the dead boy put another bullet through the head of a man for walking away from a murder he committed, he stepped onto the street and let the horseman sense his presence.

BANG! Death had put a hole in another man's head for raping a little girl that wasn't even twelve years old more than eight years old. And then, he sensed the darker presence of a soul that had fallen further than his own.

"You," he uttered, turning around and seeing Gendo several yards away. "And here I thought you had run away from me for good, and I'd have to find you by cutting away at every root that spreads darkness while sucking away innocence."

"You're causing too much trouble for my masters," Gendo expressed, though he hated the fact that he had more than SEELE breathing down his back. "You cannot be allowed to continue your childish antics and unlawful vendetta."

"You call it childish antics and unlawful vendetta, but I call it overdue justice for the innocent of this world. You would call estranged son a petulant child, but Death would call him an avenging angel of mortality for the damned that fought to condemn you, and he succeeded. And yet, you continue to identify me as the son you abandoned…and I've already told you that your son is long gone…in his own pit of damnation for his sins, separate from yours that you've been set loose from. I will send you back to that pit."

"You can deny it all you want, but you can't hide yourself from the world forever. You are Shinji Ikari, and you made a dead with a powerful person or a group in exchange for your freedom from Hell, the same as me."

"That…is your opinion, which can't be corroborated or backed up in any way. You, on the other hand, are still the same as you were when you had a heartbeat…with the minor exception of you begging your son not to kill you when he came to get his vengeance against the Ikari family."

"You still could've had all that your heart desired."

"And what would you know about what your son wanted in his heart? You abandoned him. You left him with relatives that condemned him, simply for who his parents were, and his aunt drove him to do the unthinkable to her, her family, you…and anyone that got in his way and wouldn't remove themselves from the equation he needed to solve the only way he knew how. After that…there was nothing else he wanted from anyone with the name 'Ikari'…and nothing he needed from anyone with the name 'Ikari'. What could you have possibly offered him? Hmm? He didn't want anything from you, with the sole exception of your death. If you think about it carefully, really carefully, you will see that there is nothing you could've offered him…because you couldn't give him anything. It's no different from bribing Death not to claim your soul…and Death doesn't take bribes. Death…cannot be bargained with…and won't feel remorse for any sinners he's taken to Hell."

"You…you're incorrigible. You refuse to grasp even the simplest of ideals."

"If you call global genocide of every last life on the face of the Earth a simple ideal, and all for the sake of creating a single, consummate entity that rivals the deities…with you or those whose morals are also poorly degraded in charge, at the top, king or queen of the singularity mountain, then anyone's so-called ideals are better off unheard of…and unfulfilled."

Then Mako appeared beside Death, surprising Gendo that his eldest son would appear again, siding with his twin.

"If he and I were still alive…and knew better than everything you're saying, I'd tell Shinji that it'd be a waste of time trying to get through to a man whose heart is as blackened as his goals were. I'd even paint him a picture of this awful man, the Portrait of Gendo Rokubungi-Ikari, a man that loved only his wife…and would willingly destroy the world, including Heaven itself, just to be alone with her for eternity, claiming that she was all he ever wanted, having no room in his heart for the concepts of family or friends. To him, anyone and everyone that was not his wife was either a means to an end…or an obstacle he had to dispose of." Mako expressed. "Sadly, though, and without a shred of regret, I stand by what Death has said to you before. Shinji isn't alive, anymore. He's not even here in front of you or these people right now. You face Death of the Restorative."

"And what are you, his angel?" Gendo questioned.

"No. I'm his brother. Don't let my appearance deceive you. I'm much wiser than you'll ever be. I suggest you surrender, peacefully, before things escalate."

"I won't be swayed by a ghost infant in league with a petulant child."

Mako and Death looked at one another and the infant sighed.

"Do your thing, brother," he encouraged Death, and then disappeared.

"I wouldn't have it any other way," said Death, raising his sickle up at Gendo's face. "You ran from me once. Will you run from me again?"

Gendo brought out his scythe and glared at the Restorative Horseman; if only he could escape, but for him, the very hope of surviving any encounter with any horseman was hardly an option for him.

"Aaaaurgh!" He yelled, charging towards Death.

SLASH! Death blocked his blade strike…and then shoved his Uzi into his chest, shooting him full of hot lead.

-x-

"…Hmm?" Miroku saw a fourth plate at the table, and Mana had just walked away from it. "Mana? Why is there a fourth plate?"

She looked at it, and realized her mistake.

"Sorry," she apologized. "I just forgot that it was just the three of us."

As she removed the plate, Mordecai expressed, "That horseman might return later. He did say that he was asked to protect Mana from NERV."

"He just didn't say who asked him to do this," Mana reminded her father. "Maybe the person he serves requested him to do so…as a precaution."

"This Mother Gaia you saw?"

"Yeah, her."

It was only a day after she had been returned, but Mana confided in her father and grandfather where she'd been taken to recover and who resided there.

"I believed in deities, but never believed in such a deity that would walk among people, or have a measure of dominion over four people that are supposed to be…the good guys," her father explained.

"Her association with the Restorative Horsemen seems no different from a parent instructing or guiding their children. I saw a graphic page in the book that corresponded to something that was written in it, stating that…the goddess that devotes her existence to the planet and all the innocent souls that reside upon it…sheds her blood to four souls that have lost their way from the innocence of their past…to help her retake the future from the darkness."

"A graphic page?" Miroku asked. "You mean, that detailed drawing of what looks like a woman climbing out of a hole whilst four beasts with riders atop them seem to be coming out of her back?"

"Yeah, that's the one," she answered him.

"Show me this picture," Mordecai requested from his daughter, and Mana left to the living room to retrieve the book.

When she returned, she opened the cover and searched for the page that contained the detailed drawing.

"Here it is," she told him, showing the drawing that was graphic and detailed.

Mordecai was surprised that a drawing like this had been put in the old book. It looked like the woman that his daughter had described as this Mother Gaia emerging from a tunnel or pit, but the graphics of the drawing depicted four beasts, like the ones associated to Asian mythology, with four riders, emerging from her back. But it was the way they were depicted emerging that seemed graphic; there were these threads that seemed…almost like organic cords that connected an infant to its mother during their period of gestation and birth.

"It's…almost as though these four are being born," he expressed his opinion.

"There's also this writing at the bottom of the page, right here," Mana pointed out, just beneath the depiction of ground the woman was emerging from. "I don't understand what it means."

The writing was depicted as, "Temet Nosce".

"That's not English or Japanese," her father declared. "Miroku, have you seen these words before?"

Miroku examined the page's words, and declared, "I have. That's Latin. Translated, it means, 'Know Thyself'. People often have to refer to sayings like this in order to understand themselves."

"I don't know, Grandfather, something like this seems to indicate something else entirely," Mana expressed her own opinion on the drawing and the writing. "It's like…the world is separated into four pieces…but later unifies back into one, but not in the way it initially did so."

-x-

As Conquest made the crossing between Mother Gaia's island and where she said Death was currently at to vent his anger, the Poison Master recalled his earliest years as the first of the Four Horsemen of the Restorative. He had just met Gaia upon his mortal demise and was wandering the darkened landscape that was his purgatory, due to being the child of a mortal woman and a demonic being that served the darkest masters of Hell, as his own soul, despite being devoid of any sins, was stained by his origins.

"I was told I would meet you, young man," he remembered her voice as she stepped out of the darkness and was illuminated by a light so bright that he was almost blinded. "I'm Mother Gaia."

By the time he had escaped the fog and into the streets of Macau, his stroll down memory lane ended with Mother Gaia providing him with his first white garments and his first bow…along with his new name: Conquest, the Poison Master, Horseman of the Restorative. And up to the present, he has stayed with his position, and it wasn't until centuries later that he became more aware of himself, able to look past his self-loathing and grasp what he desired most from his role in the Restorative's cause to undo the extensive damage done to the planet and its innocent lives caused by the darkness within people that desire to become more than human. He couldn't understand the guile of people that hate their own mortality, their vulnerabilities, all that allowed a human being to be considered very special in most aspects of existence, both historically and spiritually. People that want to become immortal, to obtain some sort of freedom from the boundaries of what had been placed upon them were pitiful to want to give up all of that, not accepting or appreciative of their place under Heaven.

People may have that irremovable space in their souls from the moment they're born, but it's a necessity for them, he thought, seeing Death facing off with his Apocalyptic counterpart once more, and it aids in teaching us that our mortality, or fragility, our desires for things and people that they can't have, no matter how much they want it, for all the wrongs reasons, is all the reason they're more valuable. Their desires are precious because they don't last forever.

"…Aaaaurgh!" He saw Gendo yell in frustration as he was thrown across the street by Death, landing painfully on the pavement. "Aaaurgh!"

BANG! BANG! He then saw him get hit in his head with two bullets…by an approaching Death, using a Glock while running over.

"Need any help?" He asked him.

"No!" Death told him, ignoring him as he ran past towards Gendo. "Watch them!"

He turned to face the people that were on their knees, watching him like he was the mortal that had been crucified to save the people.

"Who do you fear more," he asked them, "my fellow horseman…or the man he's fighting right now?"

"What difference does it make?" A man asked him. "They're both dead."

"The guy that's bigger and has a thing for black and those ugly glasses, he's a greater threat," Conquest stated, "but the Endgame, Death himself, he's got it only for the sinners that won't atone for their crimes. If you had to fear one of them, I'd fear the man with the glasses, for he's a darker cruelty. My fellow horseman, however, is the lesser of the two evils that exist. I would grant sickness to those that inhabit a city that is chosen for a purpose that requires them to vacate…but only to get them out and keep them out until it is no longer needed. I'm not going to do what I did in Hong Kong and Egypt to any of you, but for your sake, you'd best let Death finish his fight with this waste of a man and then let him resume with weeding out the guilty from the innocent. Unless, of course, you want an arrow run through you, I can arrange that."

He then raised his bow with an arrow prepped and aimed at the people.

Many of them whimpered and stayed where they knelt.

KICK! Gendo was sent flying backwards and right into a streetlight, which broke under his impact and fell to the ground.

Death emptied the last seven bullets of his Glock into him and them ejected the mag to insert a fresh one full of bullets.

As Gendo got up and regenerated from his injuries, he frowned at the dead boy that served under the god he hated deeply…and started wondering if he hated Shinji's purgatory incarnation more than the god that had taken his Yui from him.

"This time, you will burn for your unyielding cruelty," Death told him.

"You can't stop me," Gendo retorted, and then charged at him, despite the hail of bullets being fired at his face and chest, and tackled him to the ground.

Death used his left arm, no longer holding the gun, and gripped Gendo's neck, squeezing the flesh that felt like rubber.

"Joke's on you!" Gendo yelled. "I don't need to breathe!"

If only Gendo knew that this horseman didn't care about the advantages his being dead gave him. But Death wasn't trying to choke him. Oh, no, he was trying to break his neck off, but there was only so much any one person could do with just one of their arms while the other was used to lower the enemy's defenses. As he squeezed tighter, Death saw Gendo's scythe's blade extend and pierce him in his neck…and the result was an irritating sensation that reached up to the horseman's brain.

"This time, I'll see to it that you're buried personally!" Gendo threatened.

Crack! Gendo felt something in his neck break, and realized that one of the bones had been damaged.

"Urgh!" He grunted, and Death kicked him off…while still gripping his neck…and his head came off without a splatter of blood or anything. "Aaaurgh!"

As the body fell to the ground, Death rose up to his feet and held Gendo's head by his hair, just as the glasses fell off to the ground.

"No…this can't be!" Gendo whined.

And then, perhaps for sarcasm, Death uttered, "Heads will roll…and heads will soar…as they sink to the abyss of a lifeless ocean!"

He let go of his head…and kicked it hard with his right leg, sending it flying high into the sky.

"Aaaaaaaaahh!" The head screamed.

-x-

"Wow," went Famine, who, along with Gaia, observed Death's kick of the Apocalyptic Horseman's severed head.

"Wow, indeed," Gaia agreed with him, as the flame of the candlelight died out. "Death had me worried for a moment that he wouldn't be able to endure that man's cruelty."

"But Death never screamed or gave any verbal indication that he was pained by his attacks."

"Who he used to be in his previous life, due to a strong will and relentless vendetta, pain was a distraction, but also a source of power."

The goddess then replaced the expired candle with a new one and lit it up, reestablishing the connection to the current sight of the Restorative Horsemen of Conquest/Pestilence and Death.

-x-

"He is such a disappointment," said the shadowed figure that had punished Gendo for his initial failure at dealing with his Restorative counterpart, watching from the shadows of an alley. "That makes it twice that he has failed."

As this figure disappeared, Death returned to the gathering of people that were fearful of him now that he had defeated the man that resembled Gendo Ikari.

"The guilty will be dealt with now," he told them.

-x-

Again, in the silence of the night, sleep was something that Mana couldn't seem to grasp, even when in the safety of her room. She just couldn't stop worrying about Death, even when he said for her to not do such an act.

Is it that wrong to worry about someone that should be worried about? She wondered, staring up at the ceiling. I mean…is it wrong to show concern to a horseman that cannot be killed because he's not alive, anymore? And to show him kindness because he looks like he's in need of kindness?

Tap, tap, tap. A tapping sound was made on her window, and she got out of bed to investigate.

Outside in the yard, she saw Death, who looked like he'd been busy for a time, and had exhausted some of his ammunition doing whatever it was that he had been doing.

The horseman then pointed to the front door, and she interpreted it as him asking to be let inside.

"Daddy, Grandfather," she called as she left out her room. "Death has come back."

She was first to the door and permitted the horseman to enter her home.

As Death slowly stepped inside, Mako appeared and greeted the Asagis.

"Thank you," he said to them. "Death has been through a grievous ordeal in Macau."

"Macau?" Mordecai asked. "Macau, China? You two were in China?"

Death stepped into their living room and sat down, looking like he was ready to pass out after losing a lot of blood, except that his pale complexion was like this before his mortal incarnation died. And then…he past out.

"Did he just nod off?" Miroku questioned the ghost infant.

"No, sir," Mako answered. "He just lost consciousness. It's been happening every now and then, ever since he got stepped on. It's nothing that serious."

"If he got stepped on, then it should be serious."

"Grandfather, Death can't suffer like a living person could if stepped on by an Evangelion. A living person would've died the moment they were stepped on, but somebody that can't die a second time or is impervious to extreme harm…would just get incapacitated for a while." Mana explained Death's situation concerning his periods of unconsciousness with clarity.

"Sometimes, it's the only way he seems to be able to escape some of his mortal concerns for a while the same way most people escape reality when they sleep." Mako added.

"You mean, dreaming?" Mordecai questioned.

"Yeah," he answered.

Mana looked at Death's hakama coat and noticed some darker stains on the sleeves.

"Mako," she spoke up, "the reason Death was in Macau… Was it to punish the guilty?"

"What gave it away?" He asked her.

When she pointed to the dark stain on Death's coat, the ghost infant sighed and nodded that the reason was to punish the guilty.

-x-

"…Aaaaaaurgh! Aaaaaurgh!" Gendo screamed, having been salvaged from the trenches of the ocean and forced to endure the regeneration of his body from his head.

"Oh, get over it," the shadowed figure told him, watching from the shadows as the horseman's regenerated flesh covered his new bones.

In twenty minutes, Gendo had returned with his body restored, panting from the agony of what he suspected was the rapid acceleration of cellular growth that allowed him to recover from his injuries.

Pierce! An arrow was fired into Gendo's new stomach, causing him to cough up blood.

"Urgh!" He groaned.

"That's twice now that you've failed, Gendo," the figure expressed. "You are left with five chances to deal with the Restorative Horseman of Death. Your incompetence is most disgracing. You can't even beat the deceased incarnation of the boy that killed you. Must we do everything for you?"

Removing the arrow from his body, Gendo glared at the figure. He wanted to explain that it wasn't truly his fault, that the Restorative horseman was much stronger than he had anticipated, but his new superiors wouldn't want to hear of this. This meant that he couldn't pin his failures on anyone else or claim that anything that happened with his involvement was nothing more than an accident.

His new masters were no different from SEELE, being that they took one's failure, lack of respect, lack of responsibility, and even lack of control over their subordinates or lackeys very serious…and blamed the ones they picked for these problems.

"This time, you will be taking your marching orders from me," the figure informed him, stepping into the light, revealing himself to Gendo. "Fail us once, disgrace to you, but fail us twice, and I must get involved to make sure you don't blow your remaining chances to do your task right."

In the light, the figure was a man dressed in light, grayish-white armor that looked petite, only protecting the sections of his body that weren't restricted by his joints, such as his arms and legs, with very little armor covering his waist, providing some degree of protection without sacrificing much movement and potential speed. In his left arm was a composite bow that incorporated the qualities of a recurve bow and a compound bow, with an ancient appearance to it, like it was used centuries ahead of its actual history. But it was his hands and face that were the most unusual in their appearance: The skin texture looked like rubber, but the markings seemed like they were engraved deeply in his flesh using his own blood, leaving curved, vein-like tattoos on the face…and markings on the hands that resembled bows with three arrows prepared to be launched from them.

"How you were picked to be the Apocalyptic Horseman of Death, I may never know, but I am firm in my own belief that you were a poor choice." He told Gendo.

-x-

"Quite a feat in Macau," went Conquest to Mother Gaia, returning to the underground caverns. "Death claimed the souls of at least two-hundred-twenty-seven sinners."

"If he keeps this up, he'll have disposed of the entire criminal element that exists on the planet," said War, impressed by Death's actions, but noticed that the horseman was absent. "But where is the sinful hunter of the flesh?"

"After he killed his last sinner of the night, he left, saying that he needed to return to a spiritual duty he had received," Conquest explained, though he was just as confused by this. "I didn't get it, either. Since when did Death perform spiritual duties?"

Mother Gaia tilted her head to the left, curious herself. But not that curious; if Death had to go perform a duty that was spiritual, then it had to be something that only he could do. She would ask him when he returned to the island.

"…He's also going to need to replenish his ammunition," she heard Conquest say.

"I'm sorry, Conquest. What was that?" She asked him.

"I said that Death will need to replenish his ammunition," he repeated. "He used up most of his bullets in Macau when he faced the Apocalyptic Horseman of Death."

"I'll be right back," she then said, walking down the caverns toward Death's cave. Know thyself, Death.

She found the trunk that had been brought in when Death was injured by bullets that used Lilith's primordial blood, and opened it to find that her Horseman of Death still had many magazine cartridges and shotgun shells and spare bandoliers. If Death did exhaust his arsenal on his person, he would have to come back here for replenishment and not be reliant upon his sickle.

-x-

The sounds of water crashing against something stirred the consciousness of Death, the Endgame from what past for a type of slumber, and the horseman found himself on a shore of some sort, with ocean waves crashing against the ground. There was a soft breeze, mild sunlight, and a little girl that he'd seen several times now and was asked to protect, dressed in an outfit that displayed her arms and legs, but kept everything else concealed, which didn't excite the horseman in any way.

The girl, none other than Mana herself, turned to face him and said, "Death! You're here!"

"What is this place?" He asked her.

"It's a beach," she answered him.

"A beach?"

"A shoreline with sand, driftwood, ocean water. People spend time at the beach to enjoy themselves."

"I've never been to a beach. Who I used to be has never been to a beach. It does, however, seem peaceful and free of darkness."

But as Mana got up from off the large blanket that she used to sit on the sand, Death turned his head away, something which made the girl wonder why he would do so. She looked at her outfit and found nothing wrong with it. She was properly covered, the swimsuit was a one-piece, with a skirt, and she wasn't showing any amount of cleavage, as she was flat-chested.

"Um, Death?" She asked him. "Please, look at me."

Slowly, the fallen soul turned his face to look at her, but still found it hard to do such a simple task.

"What's wrong?"

"It's…hard to look at you like this," he explained.

"What do you mean?"

"I've seen women that were exposed, either against their will or willingly, and it left me disgusted. It was during that night in Nagoya that I saw this sort of action of flesh fiends, and I've found it difficult to adjust to seeing that much flesh without being disgusted."

"But…if you look at me, you will see that I'm not exposed like that. So…look at me as I am."

And Death looked at her. Really looked at her…and couldn't see anything of her that he had seen in the women he had either saved or killed. There was no curves or mounds of flesh on her chest, no exposed areas below the waist, nothing but a girl that wore an outfit that covered all but her limbs and head.

"Women…are much closer to nature than men will ever be, and they balance the world that most men would claim belongs to them," he uttered. "I will not deny…that I am disgusted by the darkness inherent within the flesh that people will do unthinkable, unspeakable and unforgivable acts to against the will of those that do no wrong…but in front of you…I am not disgusted. I am not offended."

As a wave crashed against the sands against, Mana nodded in acceptance of this revelation Death expressed, and then sat back down.

Death then sat beside her.

"I felt like sitting," he claimed.

"It must be a dream," she expressed. "We can do what we want in our dreams."

"I've lost my understanding towards dreaming."

"We sleep, we lose consciousness, we get a temporary escape from reality. We think of whatever our minds allow us to, whether it's running through a mysterious forest…or swimming in a deep ocean on the back of tamed shark."

"Sometimes, whenever I lose consciousness… I can see beyond this world. I can see at least one other world, one other lifetime…where the mortal I used to be…either suffered in excess…or found his happiness with people that wanted him for him…and he could forget all about the suffering he had experienced. Other times, there was just these people that seemed to be representations of himself, a little girl with a round tummy that acted as his heart…and a woman, timeless and full of heart for those around her, acting as his spirit, which had withered through years of suffering. But…other times, I… Time just seems to stop around me. I guess…that's like dreaming…except that I don't lose consciousness. To not lose consciousness…and see things that shouldn't be happening…is unusual."

"Death, I think you were describing daydreams. They can occur when a person…allows their mind to wander around, sometimes to escape a situation they find themselves in. I do that myself sometimes."

Death looked away from her at the sun, which was setting. He wasn't sure why he was with Mana in this unreal realm, but it eased him in a way.

"Death, I have to confess something to you," he heard her say to him. "I was worried about you, even though you said not to pity the dead."

"Worrying…is very different from pitying," he responded. "But why, I ask, would you worry about me? I am dead, I cannot suffer the way a mortal can."

"I guess…even someone that is dead…but does good by going after the bad guys…deserves to have someone worry about them."

Death raised his left arm…but then put it back down; he wasn't sure what he was to do in a situation like this, but he wasn't going cross a line.

-x-

As the night became day, Death opened his eyes and saw the couch in front of him, occupied by a sleeping Mana Asagi.

He got up and straightened his joints, feeling refreshed and ready to face the new day.

"Death?" He turned and saw Mordecai, stepping out of the kitchen with a coffee mug in his hands.

"Mister Asagi," he addressed the father of Mana. "How long was…"

"All night, Death," Mordecai revealed. "She watched over all night."

The horseman turned and looked back to the little girl, then back to the father before they both sat down at the table.

"When I lost consciousness, I awoke to find myself with her on a beach," he told Mordecai. "I had a difficult time looking away from her until she asked me to."

"Why?" He asked him.

"She was dressed in a swimsuit…but I must confess that after my night in Nagoya, when I decided to put my skills to use by going after the sinners of the world, I've become uncomfortable to the point of disgusted by anyone that uses flesh as an addiction or a way to harm the innocent. I may not show it with a face like this that displays little to no emotion every now and then, but I despise the use of bodily harm above all other forms of brutality, indecency, and relentless, human evil against the innocent. I see someone like Mana, I see someone that wants a happy future. I see a woman that has given up on such an ideal, and I see disgust…and a sickened mind."

"I think any degree of sexual torture would disgust anyone. And it disgusts you to see people half-dressed but not exposing themselves in a provocative way?"

"My mortal incarnation had no attachments toward any person of the female gender, not even what the people of the primitive past saw women as before their brains developed further to those of the present. I have his memories, so his interests towards any female was below his interests for revenge against the Ikari family. But to answer your question, it disgusts me a little to see people half-dressed, but not on the arms or legs. I don't understand what possesses people to find satisfaction through indecent acts."

"Some people are just wired wrong."

"Or just have no light in their soul."

"Good morning," they both turned to the kitchen entrance and saw Mana, yawning as she stood in front of them.

"Good morning," they both greeted back.

-x-

"The horseman was seen in Macau, China, and had amassed a body count of over two-hundred people he deemed guilty of past and present crimes," SEELE 04 revealed in the council's latest meeting. "The Apocalyptic Horseman of Death was also there, but he was unable to deal with him!"

"Those he killed were murderers that beat the law only because they served this council," went SEELE 12, "with the others being a bunch of rapists, thieves, dirty cops and diseased people that continued to spread disease. No one is safe from this hindrance!"

"If he continues, if he weeds out the criminals that exists… Who's to say that he won't find any of us?" SEELE 07 suggested.

There was a long silence between the council members. It was obvious that none of them wanted to bring up the possibility that the former son of Gendo and Yui Ikari could find them as the population of criminals and people with cruel intentions continued to dwindle down. And as the criminals diminished, the horseman's unknowing search for them got closer to a breaking point. There wasn't a single one of them that wanted to think of the horror that this deceased child could do to them.

-x-

"…And he started speaking again?" Yui asked Nama, who led her to the new chamber where Shinji's remains were being used to produce multiple Dummy Plugs.

"Yes, and it was the same thing he was reported saying the other times. Something about flesh being weak and seeking release. I'm positive that he's against being regenerated and used like this, and is demanding to die."

"But he did die."

When they entered the chamber, Yui saw her younger son inside another tank with another oxygen mask stuck to his face, more active than he had been the last few times, banging against the glass.

"Flesh is weak!" He shouted. "Seeking release! Let it die! Let it die!"

-x-

"Hmm?" Mako, who was present during the resuming of the Godzilla film that Death and the Asagi family were watching, turned and looked out the window.

"Um, Mako?" Miroku asked the ghost infant. "Is there something wrong?"

He looked at the elder and responded, "I thought I heard someone yelling. It sounded like Death, only…less than dead."

It was probably a good thing that Death was sitting on the floor with Mana like before, more focused on the film, or the horseman would've probably raised a verbal assault if he chose to.

"The arrogance of man is thinking nature is in our control," said the scientist character to the military man when asked if the creature that was the title character stood any chance against the two enemy monsters that were now in San Francisco, "and not the other way around. Let them fight."

"And the military just back off after that?" Death asked Mana.

"Yes," she answered him. "They realize and accept that they're powerless against the M.U.T.O.s and allow Godzilla to deal with them, as he is stronger than they are."

"It seems like something like this could benefit everyone if accepted in real life," Death expressed.

Mana then slid the bowl of popcorn to him and he accepted some with his left hand.

Before the horseman could even put the handful of popcorn into his mouth, a thought that occurred only once during his earlier time as a member of the Restorative returned to the surface of his mind. It was during that day he was in what remained of the original Tokyo, when he suffered an hallucination of himself saying that flesh without a will knows nothing but agony and how someone his hallucination self addressed as "they" wouldn't allow the flesh to die. He then put his hand back down.

"Death?" Mana took notice of his current behavior. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I, uh… Just an old thought," he told her.

Just moments after the HALO jump into San Francisco and the sight of the larger M.U.T.O. laying eggs, Godzilla appeared and roared at the enemy creature as he came to stop them from destroying the world and producing more parasitic members of their species.

"Are you…enjoying the film, Death?" Mana asked.

"I am enjoying it, Ms. Asagi," he answered her.

A/N: And with this chapter, Death, the Endgame thinks he has defeated his Apocalyptic counterpart for the time being, but will later discover that Gendo has a similar tenacity that he demonstrates when going after sinners and protecting the Angels. But Gendo has shown that he has his weaknesses and vulnerabilities that make him inferior to his Restorative counterpart because Heaven isn't on his side. Also, can anyone understand what the corpse of Shinji Ikari means whenever he speaks? Peace.