Creation began on 05-29-15
Creation ended on 08-01-15
Neon Genesis Evangelion
A New Cause: Holy and Unholy Forces
A/N: Heaven and Hell continue to channel and pool their energies on Earth.
"…Along with the Restorative Horseman of Death being apprehended and contained, there's a woman that claims to have ties with these horsemen," Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki told the SEELE council, revealing that the infamous Restorative Horseman of Death had been in NERV's custody. "He's been periodically sprayed with LCL and is constantly exposed to UV light to keep him in check."
"This is quite a discovery," went SEELE 09. "Has any attempt been made to dispose of him permanently, Sub-Commander?"
"No, and we don't expect to find a way to do so. So far, containing him this time has been shown to be effective. We've taken every measure to keep him in check."
"Continue to do so, Sub-Commander," went SEELE 01 to Fuyutsuki. "We will be sending a special crew to relieve you of the horseman and dispose of him themselves."
"Yes, sir," Fuyutsuki obliged, and the holographic monoliths representing the council members disappeared from the room. But Death can't be killed. How can he be disposed of?
-x-
"If Death wants to talk to those that will listen, then it's probably best to listen to him and hear whatever it is he has to say," said Mother Gaia to Commander Chansu outside her cell.
"And you're not the least bit concerned that he may reveal something he's not supposed to?" He asked her. "Most would be concerned about any revelations to closely-guarded secrets."
"Have you ever heard of a book called The Book of the Restorative? It explains what the Four Horsemen of the Restorative are tasked with doing."
"I've heard of it, but the book belonged to Mana Asagi, so NERV had no claims to it or whatever secrets it possessed. It did, however, explain what LCL and sunlight could do to Death if he were exposed to LCL during the daylight hours, which is why we took precautions for the next time he came back here."
"But if you've heard of the book, then you know that Death, along with the other horsemen, are on the side of right and are tasked with restoring the planet, not destroying it. Why else would I devote my time and existence to the horsemen? I want to see the Earth restored to her previous state, before the Second Impact that maimed her. Why have people that don't understand what we're trying to achieve interfere with such an honorable cause?"
"Because most people are afraid of the horsemen and the Angels invading their cities. Fear causes many people to feel that the end of the world is nearing. It did occur fifteen years ago."
Gaia, who was laying on a cot, turned to face him and expressed, "And that was not the result of an Angel exploding by accident, or because of a bogus lie about a meteorite crashing into one of the Poles. Oh, no, no, no. Adam, the Angel of Angels and the father of the messengers you've seen, was assaulted by people that desired the power of the gods for themselves, which is beyond them. But to defy the divinity of the gods is to deny your status as being beneath them, unable to bask in the same level of light as they do because their authority is greater, and to deny that is to turn away from them in preference of the empty promises that Hell and its masters tempt those to accept at the cost of their spiritual purity."
"Eventually, everyone will desire that which is forbidden."
"It's a pathetic result of fearing what lies beyond mere existence upon the mortal realm. Fear drives us to commit the unimaginable, the unthinkable and the inexcusable from time to time."
-x-
Death looked like he had seen a guy that knew more about necrosis than he demonstrated, as his face started to show extensive decay on his cheeks and forehead.
Yui stood in front of the window, looking at him, and pressed a button to initiate speaking with him.
"Whenever you're ready to begin," she stated.
"You're a murderess," he uttered at her. "A murderess that has evaded retribution too many times…and will not evade it forever. Your name is still on the list of sinners that need to be taken out."
"I'm not a murderess," she defended herself. "I haven't killed anyone."
Even when chained, Death still leaned forward, weakened by the LCL and UV light.
"You can't hide any of your sins, your secrets, from me," he responded. "Death knows all."
"He's bluffing," he heard the faux-blond express.
"Come say that right at me!" He shouted. "How would you like to lose mobility in your arms and mouth?! Then you'd have two people to hold grudges against!"
"Doctor Akagi," Yui expressed, "maybe it would be best if you left us for a while."
"No, no, let her stay," Death defended the faux-blond. "She should hear what I have to say."
Mako, who was also present and showing the same effects the LCL had on him the last time Death was exposed to Lilith's blood, with his hair and skin soaked and his blanket damp, showed a facial expression that was more adult than infant, exhibiting concern and a feeling of being under the weather.
Yui saw him and wondered how the LCL could be affecting him when he demonstrated a slight vulnerability to electrical containment, suspecting that he was linked to his twin and suffered mildly, unlike the younger sibling, who suffered more.
"You see them every now and then, don't you?" Death questioned Yui. "You see the spiritual remnants of your youngest child, and hear them speak to you every time they have something to say to you."
Mako saw them, as well, noticing how the younger-looking phantom, Driving Force, floated above Ritsuko Akagi, while the elder-looking phantom, his brother before he cleaned up and changed out of his filthy garments from the institute, looking back at him beneath the dirty strands of unkempt hair.
"She's the only one alive that can see them," he expressed. "The youngest floats just above her head while the eldest is in the back of the room just looking at us."
Yui turned to face Akagi, looking past her at the Slayer persona, whose face remained hidden by his hair, and wondered when he was going to attempt something.
"They claim that you're able to see ghosts?" Ritsuko asked her.
"Not ghosts," went Death. "More like echoes, shades, remnants of a person that has past on, leaving bits of themselves that can't move on. I wouldn't expect a lover of science to understand something that is beyond them."
The skin on the horseman's forehead split open…and suddenly blood spilled onto his nose.
"Let the unseen be seen," he said, "and the unheard be heard."
"Oh, dear, now everyone can see us," Ritsuko heard a young boy's voice that didn't emanate from the ghost baby, and looked over at Yui, seeing a little boy floating just above her, resembling a younger Shinji Ikari from the days of prepubescence.
"Seeing and hearing," another voice, older than the other, similar to when the horseman was still Shinji Ikari, "isn't the same as touching, feeling, being. We can't hurt or be hurt."
She turned her chair around and saw the remnant of Shinji from before he changed out of his mental institution clothes and cleaned up.
"Aah!" She gasped.
"Oh, spare me your pointless fear," Slayer uttered. "The only threat in this room…is the stiff that's restrained by you."
-x-
"Aaaurgh! Aaaurgh!" Kaji hissed and groaned, due to Commander Chansu applying tormenting pressure on his right leg, that had been heavily bandaged after it was discovered that Death had cut him with his sickle after doing a reckless move against him.
"You're lucky that he didn't kill you," Chansu told the unshaven man. "Addressing the Horseman of Death by a deceased man's name can lead only to trouble, and you were asking for trouble."
"It just slipped!" Kaji groaned.
"Be sure that it doesn't 'slip' again. Otherwise, you might not be so lucky next time."
As Chansu got up and let the room, Asuka had stepped in; the redhead was smitten with the unshaven man, as far as Chansu was willing to allow himself to know.
This is getting unstable, he thought, walking down the hall to return to the cell that Death was being held in. Where's that specialist crew that's supposed to be here to deal with Death?
-x-
"…My God," Fuyutsuki gasped, seeing the two phantoms that were related to the late Shinji Ikari in the room with Dr. Akagi and Yui. "How is this possible?"
"Ask her," Ritsuko told him, pointing towards Yui. "She's the one that brought them with her. They follow her wherever she goes."
He looked at Yui, who kept her face turned to Death and Mako, the former now looking more degenerated than ever before due to having been sprayed again with LCL.
"Maybe you should congratulate her instead," went Driving Force to the elder. "She has managed to help you do to Death that nobody else has managed to achieve. She has helped you hurt him."
He then looked at Death, and saw his jaw rotting away, exposing the teeth.
"Has he said anything?" He asked the women.
"Nothing yet," said Yui, "other than the usual babel."
"Babel, you say?" Slayer questioned. "Death has spoken only babel? Can babel mean anything to anyone that has their name on the blacklist of the Grim Reaper? I hope to hear the guilty screams of those that will die soon, as that will be babel."
Fuyutsuki approached the phantom, but was unable to grab him by his shoulders or even his head; his hands phased through him.
"Ahh," he shuddered.
"Don't waste your time," Slayer told him. "We're not alive like you, so your threats are idle as they are worthless, just as any threat I could pose is futile."
"Oh, dear, now Death can't say anything," went Driving Force.
"What do you mean?" Fuyutsuki asked him.
"Look at him."
They all looked at Death, and saw that his jaw had fallen off, leaving only his upper teeth, revealing the decaying muscles and nerves surrounding what was left of the areas of bone.
Mako's right hand barely touched the side of his brother's face, almost grazing it, and a tear appeared in his left eye.
"I will be your voice now," he told him.
-x-
"The hand has been cleansed, Conquest," a man told the Poison Master, holding a pot with the severed limb being sterilized in boiling liquid. "Are you ready to commence the attachment?"
Conquest, stripped of his robes, wearing only white, cargo trousers, held up a surgical blade…and severed his own hand from his body.
"Before I begin to regenerate," he ushered the three men in charge of making sure that Conquest could use the severed hand to gain access to NERV HQ.
They removed the hand from the pot and began the process of attaching the limb to the horseman.
-x-
Driving Force and Slayer floated into Death's cell, standing behind him whilst Mako floated in front of his younger twin, his eyes glowing white, like fire, and his face appearing deprived of any emotions, like there was nothing within him.
Death looked at the mortals inside the neighboring room, and his eyes became pitch-black, like the darkness in the world.
"The blood of Lilith," Mako started speaking, his voice mirroring that of his brother, "the false sunlight, and the other methods at your disposal may have hindered me, but Death will not be silenced. Sinners will be brought to justice and condemned for their crimes. A murderer hides among you, and will be punished to the total extent of my power."
"You're speaking through your brother?" Yui questioned him.
"He has offered to be my voice, as is the way of necromancy, the art of communication with all that are of the dead," Death answered through Mako. "For a woman of science, you are as pathetic as you were the last time I saw you. I will be your undoing."
"Unless you can broke free of those restraints and remove the explosives attached to your body, your threat is only words," went Ritsuko to him.
"And unless you can walk up to me and say that to my face, I'm afraid I can't take you serious," Death retorted towards her, disrespecting her by means of her crippled state. "Not that I ever could take you serious, as you're just a disgrace."
"You're the disgrace. You're immobilized by the LCL, the sunlight has weakened you, and you're caged like a beast. You might be like one of the four members from that book that mirrors bits of the four members from Revelations, but in here, you're no different from a pest that needs to be dealt with. And you're only like this…because your parents left you alone for over ten years."
"You don't know that," went Misato to Ritsuko. "None of us know that for sure."
"Then have Ikari ask him, since he hates her more."
Fuyutsuki never took his eyes off the horseman and his brother. It was different from the last time they tried to interrogate the ghost infant, but this time it was Death himself, and he was more talkative than his brother hadn't been.
"Do you have some unresolved issues because you had been abandoned, Death?" Yui asked him. "Or is it…Shinji Ikari?"
CLANG! The chains rattled as Death's body strained against them.
"You left him!" The Driving Force phantom shouted at her.
"You left him to play God!" The Slayer phantom added in. "He left you for dead the day you decided to come back, thinking you could stop him!"
Yui remembered that day constantly because of her stab wound with the machete.
"He dispatched to the afterlife everyone that got in his way!" Mako shouted. "He butchered your life partner for his role in the abandonment. He slaughtered the bitch that resembled you! He took her legs (he pointed towards Ritsuko)! And now, his soul wishes he had killed you."
"And what about you, huh?" She asked him. "You and Mother Gaia say that you're not him, and yet you seem to be contradicting this."
"I wouldn't know of contradictions, even if you were to teach me of them," Mako uttered as Death stared at her. "But I am not Shinji Ikari, for he is deceased. I may have his likeness, his memories, his very soul at the core of my being…but I am not him…and I will never be him, no matter how much any of you or others desire for me to be him. He moved on when he took his last breath…and she (Mako points to Misato) dumped his corpse into a pool of Lilith's blood. He's long gone…so let his memory die. Let him flow down the river of eternal shame…and be forever forgotten."
"It's hard to forget when you wear his face and speak in his voice."
"You ever tried trying? People across the world seem to be getting the message that I am not that young man with a body count of over three-hundred and a family that drove him over the edge. I kill sinners and save innocent people the so-called law and order of this world can't because of their rules and limitations. I've even had to murder the people that hide behind the authority that they abuse to achieve their own ends, and many of them have claimed that they were men of the law when they were just as guilty as the scum I've hunted down. I've seen the degradation the flesh, the brutality of relationships that have gone wrong or were twisted into relationships that never were, the awfulness of the evil created by humans. Like that night in Nagoya. What I saw being done to those women and that girl. Oh, it made me feel disgusted that a society with a rotten underbelly would allow such acts to be committed…and that such police would take bribes in the form of flesh. It made me sick to know that those ladies felt helpless and deprived of any actual hope. Do you have any idea of what it feels like, to be violated by countless deviants, over and over again? To have seen it happening before your very eyes before you even entered the room where it was happening? It's unforgivable and could only be answered through the retribution of those that took part in the disgusting act. All that disgraced the flesh were forced to pay in flesh, blood and bone, along with their souls to rectify the horror that they had committed."
"Rectify?!" Ritsuko questioned him. "Surely, there were other ways to handle a situation like that?! Why not just walk away or call the real cops?"
"And why would I do either of those? Nobody took Shinji Ikari serious until after he committed murder, and even then, he didn't get any help that should've been afforded to him, not that it would've made a difference; he was too far gone. Was anyone going to take me serious if I were to call them and say that an unauthorized and sadistic orgy was happening to people that were kidnapped and being used like garbage? Maybe someone with a moral conscious, but I wasn't going to take that chance…and I couldn't let those men live after witnessing their disgusting euphoria after what they did…so I took matters into my own bones and sent them to Hell."
"But that's cruel, what you did," Yui told him.
"Says who?!" Slayer questioned her, under the sway of the necromancy needed for Death to speak. "Says who, Yui Ikari?! Says who?!"
"You're one of the people that will look the other way while others suffer. Some would call me a cruel messenger of the end of their days…when I should probably consider myself some sort of deliverer of the end of suffering. A demon to the guilty…and an angel to the innocent." Driving Force added in.
"Death has been viewed in certain cultures as an angel of sorts," went Fuyutsuki.
And with that, the horseman recalled something that had been nearly forgotten. It was a memory, one that wasn't one of Shinji Ikari's. Within this memory, he saw the vastness of space, a small, blue marble that was the Earth itself, hanging in the darkness…and large wings that were as white as snow, slender and filled with power…turning into black, ragged versions of their heavenly selves as he fell from wherever it was he stood…if he was even standing at all.
"And as he takes the full force of the darkness, his wings of light become one with the darkness!" A grim voice shouted.
-x-
"I've been waiting for you," went the aged, Australian actor in the commercial of the latest film that was still in the theaters, as Mana looked on her computer at the YouTube site.
Why are you doing this, Mana? The girl wondered, as she was still worried about Death, the Endgame, despite trying to distract herself with the digital illusions available to her.
"We can stop Judgment Day from happening," went the young woman to a man in the commercial, trying to prevent a war between people and machines from happening.
And what was not amusing to the young girl was that she, her father and grandfather had already seen the film. While it was a good film, it still left those that had seen the previous films desiring more from the very plot of the franchise.
Laying on the edge of her desk, her mother's locket sat untouched after she set it there to browse the Internet on her computer. Every now and then, Mana would look at it and recall her concern for the Restorative Horseman of Death, who still hadn't returned.
Sometimes, it's hard to forget that Death is an undead and not a former member of the living, she thought, and wondered how impervious to physical pain he was and how much it would take to inflict emotional or psychological pain upon him. Nobody's invincible. Maybe Death is to some major degree, but nowhere near impervious to severe harm. I saw him suffer from the LCL that was still in him when he rescued me. He may require water to help him flush out the LCL, but if he were unable to reach a sufficient supply of it, who knows what could happen to him.
DING-DONG! The doorbell to the house went off, breaking Mana from her train of thought.
"That's strange," she uttered to herself. "We don't get many visitors."
She got up from her desk and exited her room to go downstairs.
Mordecai was already at the door, revealing the visitor outside to be a man dressed in blue overalls over a blue shirt, wearing a blue coat.
"Can I help you, sir?" He asked the man.
"Um, is this the Asagi residence?" The man asked back, nervous.
"Yes."
"My name is Hei-Bai. Hei-Bai Ikari, and I believe you've met the Horseman of Death a few times."
"Ikari? As in Yui Ikari?"
"Yes…unfortunately. Not a relationship I'm proud of, but not the reason I'm here…and will never be the reason I'm here right now."
"Well, uh…what if we've met him a few times? Are you a paparazzi?"
"Goodness, no," Hei-Bai defended. "I just… I just wanted to know what the purgatory incarnations of my deceased nephews were like…because I never got to know them."
Mordecai and Mana then recalled how Death and Mako (due to the fact that they were brothers) were, unfortunately, still related to Yui Ikari due to past issues that weren't yet resolved (and would, probably, never be resolved), and this relation extended to Yui's other relatives, which included this man in front of them.
"We didn't know Yui had a brother," Mana spoke up, catching their attention. "It was only ever mentioned that she just had a sister."
"Motoko," Hei-Bai said, remembering his other sister, "my eldest sister. She was…not as subtle as Yui…or as pleasant to be around."
"I take it both your sisters weren't your type of company?" Mordecai asked him.
"One sister that disgraces the family…and another sister that drove a little boy to commit the crimes he did after a period of abuse and neglect. It's not easy to try and relate to either lady on a peaceful level…and I can't relate to them or forgive them for their choices."
"What," went Mana, "would you like to know about them, anyway?"
"Do they have any pastimes? Do they listen to music, watch the news or movies? Do they talk to people? Anything, really. The only thing I ever knew about the boy that was once Shinji Ikari…was that he liked to draw pictures…and that he was exceptionally good at it."
Mordecai sighed and gestured for Hei-Bai to step inside.
"Death and Mako," he uttered to the Ikari, "have more than once been in the company of my daughter, so she knows them a little better than her grandfather or I do."
"Mako's usually always by his side," said Mana to Hei-Bai. "He doesn't need anything, as he's a ghost infant. But Death… Death is, more or less, committed to what he does. He doesn't like it when good people get hurt by bad ones, and takes the law into his own hands. When it comes to eating or drinking, Death did initially decline an offer of tea, as he didn't need to eat or anything, but he accepted a cup, regardless. It was probably because he's dead and, as a result of such a fact, doesn't require any form of sustenance that living people do to survive, but he can still enjoy such a trait that we perform."
"But…what about…his emotions? Does he laugh or anything?"
"He…did so once…though, that was as a joke. I think it was the only time he ever found anything, even a trivial thing, funny."
"He spooked her," Mordecai expressed.
"Whoa," Hei-Bai responded.
-x-
"…We could try contacting the family and seeing if they had any later contact with the dead guy," went Kaji to Misato, who came to see him after Yui, at the suggestion of Mako, who had stopped serving as Death's voice for a short while, decided that they all needed a break from the interrogation of the horseman.
"No, after what they went through, it's likely they don't want anything to do with any organizations that view their undead savior as a threat. Last time I even checked, that girl, Miki Serizawa, hasn't returned to her school yet, and every school's been closed down because of the fear of the horseman's criminal hunting," Misato told him.
"Still, NERV has plenty of pull to investigate the women he rescued that night."
"With the majority of NERV's secrets being exposed, some of the agency's legal protection has been reduced. NERV can't go and invade one's privacy unless we have reason to suspect that they have some knowledge of something they probably shouldn't."
"Still, with the Asagi family off-limits because Death says so, they're the only other people that might know something."
As the former couple continued to bicker, in the chamber that housed Death, said horseman was once more sprayed with LCL, weakening him further.
Ritsuko watched with a hollowed satisfaction at the horseman's would-be suffering, but Death's vacant expression (made more vacant by his lack of a jaw) didn't indicate that he even cared that she was there with Yui and Fuyutsuki.
Mako, starting to show more signs of being affected by the LCL in a similar way that Death was, sported a decomposing gash on his left cheek and the area of flesh on his exposed torso took on a pale discoloration, showing several veins on his see-through form.
Suddenly, Death's nose fell off his face, withering away to nothing but dust.
"Urgh!" Fuyutsuki covered his mouth and vacated the room, the sight of Death's nose and jaw-deprived face made him sick and want to vomit.
Yui, who had more control over her gag reflex than her former sensei, sighed and wondered how much more of the LCL and UV light that the horseman could endure.
-x-
Mother Gaia sensed the massive deterioration Death was going through, and groaned at the irritability that they were both going through.
"Whatever's going to happen, it's gotta happen soon," she uttered.
-x-
Mana couldn't sleep that night. She worried about Death, about Mako and their goal (mostly Death's) to rescue her mother from Unit-03. Her family's conversation with Hei-Bai Ikari was an interesting one, and he was probably the only live member of the Ikari family that they didn't have some sort of problem with.
However, he seemed troubled with this will reading that had been postponed due to a situation he barely mentioned. He did seem anxious to want to deal with the reading soon, mainly because he had expressed his desire to leave the country because he couldn't stand to be near his sister, even though it was a large gap between them in the distance in the same country. So Mana had to wonder how estranged the Ikari family's surviving members were…and how broken it was after Second Impact.
A man loses his father to the troubles caused indirectly by his family, she thought, looking out her bedroom window. A woman that abandoned her youngest son, her spouse abandons him shortly afterward, and he's left with relatives that treated him poorly…only to pay the ultimate price for their mistreatment in the end. The brother and sister left alive are no different from strangers, and the brother wants nothing to do with her because of what she did. I don't blame Mr. Ikari for wanting to get away. Anyone that has shamed their family that much would have relatives that would want to get as far away from them as possible.
Sighing, she got out of bed and looked out her window at the tall buildings away from the neighborhood. The city seemed so peaceful tonight, almost like it was free of crime and darkness that harms the good people. She then looked up at the sky. There was an unusual cloud formation illuminated by the light of the moon, shaped almost like…an Evangelion.
Creepy, she thought, wishing that the Restorative Horseman of Death was here right now.
He didn't have to talk with her, but his presence would've been a comfort.
-x-
He was now looking like a real corpse due to the LCL and UV lighting. His skin was paler than normal, the flesh on his ears had eroded, and his hair had fallen entirely off his head. Death, stripped of the majority of his strength now, was unable to stand upright any longer, held up only by the chains.
"Death?" Mako uttered towards his younger twin. "Brother?"
Death raised his head up, but then lowered it back down, and lost the eyeball in his left socket, rotting to nothing as it fell to the ground.
"It…hurts," Yui, Ritsuko and Fuyutsuki heard the Driving Force persona express, being used by Death to inform his elder twin of the immense pain he was in.
"You may have put him close to dying," went Slayer, "but Death can't die. Death is eternal, inescapable. If it's immortality that you seek, immortality is a form of punishment that can break you."
-x-
Flexing the fingers of the newly-attached hand, Conquest replaced his robes and picked up his longbow, set to head out to his destination.
Conquest, he heard Gaia's voice in his head, please, rescue Death and Mako.
Gasp! Conquest reacted to the intensity of the request, and ran to get War and Famine.
"War! Famine!" He called out to them. "We have to go! Now!"
In Famine's cave, the two looked up to the approaching horseman.
"All of us?" Famine asked him.
"All of us," he answered.
"But it's not yet time for us to all ride together out there," War expressed.
"It's not about riding together. It's about helping one of our own. We need to help Death."
"We're always helping him."
"And this came from Mother Gaia, so we can't refuse him aid."
War sighed and got up off the ground, picked up his sharpened katana.
"Let's go do this," he uttered, and Famine followed them.
-x-
"…Can he really not die?" Fuyutsuki asked Gaia, needing to know how immortal Death truly was. "LCL has affected him severely, but can it kill him?"
"What is his fate to you?" She asked him, curious about his vocal tone. "Is that concern I hear?"
"His brother asked him of his status, and expressed he was in pain. He said, 'It hurts'. But to answer your question, yes, I am concerned. Even when he's not who he used to be, I can't stop seeing him as a victim of factors beyond even a sane person's ability to tolerate or overlook."
"Like child abandonment, abuse and attempted exploitation?"
"Yes."
Gaia got up from off the cot and approached the glass barrier that separated them.
"Death is eternal. You can try to destroy him all you want, probably succeed in some way on the physical level, but you can't stop him from coming back. Unless he were to stop of his own accord, he can always come back, and I would never hold it against him if he wanted to stop. I wouldn't hold it against any of my horsemen if they wanted to stop. I am understanding of their pain, their reason for accepting their purgatory states, and I care for them as if they were truly mine."
Fuyutsuki then had to ask her a serious question.
"What was your reason for gathering the horsemen?" He asked her. "What motivated you to put into motion this goal to change the world?"
"Not change the world. Heal it, undo the debilitating injuries that have crippled it beyond any measure of regeneration. Organizations like yours will do anything to make others feel that you're above the realms of moral law and order, that there aren't any rules that apply to you. But that's not true, for nobody of mortality is above the realm of law and order, and there are many that exists around what's left of society that feel that these organizations have done nothing but further deteriorate what's left of the world. There are those that provide information…while others give their support in many ways that helped to further their goals to uncover the truth or bring the so-called masters of the world to justice. And there are those that can and will take a different approach. A direct approach that is either fueled by a desire for revenge…or heartache and a need for justice."
"But…what was your reason?"
"The Second Impact, instigated by select mortals, caused the premature death of my daughter."
"So, then it was heartache that motivated you?"
"I'm not the only one. My daughter, of course, was adopted, but I loved her all the same. Like my sons and daughters of the past, everything I did, I did for them, and they filled the inescapable hole in my own soul that is eternity. I may outlive the people that I love during the time I spend with them, but that doesn't change the feelings I have for each of them. Thomas. Raphael. Marie. Jane. Bumi. Lum. Sasha. Luna. Arthur. Roman. Deirdre. Winter. Citrus. Jaeger. Mikasa. I loved each of them, and the extent of my love for them was to let them go, to let them explore the world that was theirs as much as it was mine. They grew old, had families, departed in their sleep. Their descendants survived up to this day…but I stay out their lives."
"Why? Shouldn't they know of you, being a…distant relative?"
"As much as I would want to be a part of their lives, I can't disturb the sanctity of their peaceful lives. I do have boundaries myself. I follow rules."
"So, just because you lost a child to Second Impact, along with others that have lost lives important to them, you gathered these lost souls to help you?"
"You think the people that died during the Second Impact moved on, don't you? But the honest truth is that dying and moving on to the afterlife are two very different things. My daughter, along with the restless souls of all those that died during that awful, unforgivable event, didn't ascend to Heaven or descend to Hell. They're stuck in between the two realms and this one, unable to return to life or move on. If the planet is healed, the bridges between the realms will be restored. The innocent can return to life and the guilty can continue their path to the underworld. I can still remember a time when the planet was deprived of the filth that exists today. The corruption, the pollution, the greed. I'm well aware of what Instrumentality is to achieve for those that desire it, to remove the flaws of humanity and reincarnate them as the true masters of the world. But it's a fool's errand, a falsehood. You want to kill the Angels, the children of Adam, to ensure you have no obstacles standing in between you and your goal, but so long as there are those that don't desire the global eradication of all life in existence, those that believe themselves to be in control will always have obstacles in their way. The freedom to stay true to one's existence…or just to have a life without woe, but without the goal to make others lose hope in living, is the right of everyone. What is it that you desire, sir? Surely, excluding the crimes committed, the people harmed, there is something your heart desires?"
Fuyutsuki then expressed, "I prefer a world with people in it, no matter how stained with sin it is."
"A pre-Second Impact world?" Gaia asked him.
"Yeah. I still remember how much better this country looked when it still had seasons…and not this perpetual summertime."
"Hmm… Yeah, the seasons of Japan were a blessing upon the country. Autumn after summer, Air after Fire. Then winter, the season of Water, followed by spring, the season of Earth. I love the change of season, for better or for worse. Death needs to see the change of season, too. A former life of nothing but summer is not a life well-lived…or wasted."
Fuyutsuki then had to ask another serious question to the goddess.
"Gaia, I uh… The Evangelion… You have no faith in it, whatsoever, do you?" He questioned.
Gaia sighed and responded, "I thought we went over what I thought about the Evangelion. I believe it to be an abomination upon the world. An outright outrage against natural life. It perverts what already exists, and exploits like a parasite, taking only for itself…and giving nothing but pain, hatred, disgust, fear and death. I wouldn't invest myself in it unless I had no choice, and I do have a choice. I choose not to invest myself in it. Why invest in something that perverts life's gift of creation and causes more pain than help?"
"I support Yui's intentions regarding the Eva."
"Even when it hurts those that have already lost important pieces of their lives?"
Fuyutsuki found himself unable to give her an answer that was the right one.
"Three days ago, a woman that helps to feed others around my home had a new baby," Gaia told him. "It was a boy she named Samson, after her grandfather, who died as a result of Second Impact. He's the little brother of two elder sisters and a brother, and he's the seventeenth child of a future the Restorative fights for to be born this year. Like all the other sons and daughters I've seen, I hope his future includes his mother for years to come until she dies from natural causes. The Evangelion uses the souls of women that bore children after Second Impact, so it would make sense for an organization like NERV to have access to those souls. It becomes part of my duty to protect those still alive that make the choice to become mothers so that they may live to see their children grow up and find their reasons for living, whether it's joining self-defense agencies, becoming teachers or even rock stars."
"So, even if NERV were to try, we couldn't convince you or the horsemen to step back?"
"Things will always get worse before they begin to get better. Buildings fall, people die, relationships change. Surely, you've encountered some of these outcomes?"
"I have."
"But you've seen the good that has come out of the bad, haven't you?"
"Mostly because of the Horseman of Death. His actions for and against the people. And before him, there was Shinji, who was not what I expected when he was unleashed upon us. His silence and brutality frightened everyone."
"He wouldn't accept what his parents had decided for him to be and do. He defied the so-called fate they made of his life…and deviated from the path laid out in preference to one he was making that he was comfortable with seeing to its end."
"You see into a person's life or something?"
"Hardly. Time spent with someone is time used to know them. The more time spent with them, the more you can understand them. But no one can see past any choice that they made that they don't understand or comprehend. Free will, choice, causality, fate, destiny. We can't comprehend much of those, even if we wanted to. There are many mysteries that we're simply not meant to find answers to, and who we are and why we exist…aren't among them. Those answers to those questions…we keep within ourselves."
-x-
The front door to the NERV HQ opened up and four figures stepped into the facility, followed by the additional footsteps of heavy hooves…of skeletal beasts.
"To think that this…disgrace that is your heavenly counterpart was taken down by a…crises of mortality," one of the four figures expressed, revealing himself to be the Apocalyptic Horseman of Conquest, leading the other Apocalyptic Horsemen towards their destination to relieve NERV of the Restorative Horseman of Death.
"He wasn't supposed to demonstrate any interest in the welfare of others," Gendo uttered, still believing that this horseman was his deceased son, no matter what everyone else said. "Even if he did, he wouldn't be able to help them."
"Oh, kids never listen to their parents," said the Apocalyptic Horseman of War, still angry by the fact that her former son would get the better of her in their first encounter as deceased and cursed souls. "They never realize their limitations or accept their positions in life. They always have to fight their superiors for some would-be freedom."
As they entered an elevator, leaving their beasts behind, the plan to dispose of the troublemaking thorn in the agency's side was underway.
-x-
"…Guys, I have a bad feeling," went Famine to Conquest and War, as they escaped the mist and entered the environmental terrain of the Geo-Front. "Something is off about the atmospheric energy around here."
As Conquest got off his horse, a sense of despair wrapped around his neck.
"Ugh," he groaned. "Let's do this quick."
-x-
"…I'm not convinced that Gaia's being a liar," said Fuyutsuki to Ritsuko, Misato and Chansu in Central Dogma. "She's just too honest, too sincere."
"Even a sincere person is capable of deception," went Ritsuko in response to his belief. "There's doubt that she's capable of feeling sympathy for those that were harmed by her horsemen."
"Could we try administering sodium amytal to verify her honesty?" Misato suggested.
"I doubt that would affect her," Chansu shot her suggestion down. "That's fallen out of favor with several therapists over the last decade. Instead of verifying memories, it often fabricates them."
"Gaia's not interested in the Evas or causing a Third Impact," Fuyutsuki expressed. "She wants to heal the planet and the innocent lives taken in the Second Impact, and for her, it's not only a priority, it's personal. She lost a child herself."
Ritsuko then asked, "A child of a deity."
"An adopted child."
"Even deities can have families, just like people can," went Chansu.
"She even said that the horsemen were like her children," added Misato. "And she's concerned for Death, even though he can't be killed, no matter what we try. The LCL and UV lights have only weakened him, crippled him, deteriorated him."
"It's sickening," uttered Ritsuko, disgusted by the woman's ties to the horseman.
"Well, Dr. Akagi, what are you suggesting that we do with the woman?" Chansu requested of her.
"Dispose of her," she answered him, "same as the horseman."
"But…is that really necessary?" Fuyutsuki asked them. "Gaia's a prisoner here."
"Then…could you explain to us, to me, why it seems like, out of her and Death, she's the only one of the two…that seems to want to be here, despite all the risks she's taking?" Ritsuko demanded.
-x-
Pacing around in the cell, Gaia prayed that Death could endure the degeneration of Lilith's primordial blood for a while longer until he could be rescued. The very thought of him in great pain was enough to give her both a heartache and a stomachache.
"Miss Gaia," the voice of Yui Ikari cut through her train of thought and concern for her most recent horseman's suffering.
"You're the only woman in these modern times that has become an inconvenience to those with…clearer goals in mind," she responded to the woman, turning to the glass to see her. "Does it trouble you? To know that you're hurting one of my horsemen…and that he looks and sounds like one of your children from a time of mortality that is a gift upon mankind?"
Crossing her arms on her chest, Yui asked her, "How can you live with yourself, putting these…condemned souls in these situations?"
Crossing her own arms, Gaia responded, "I wouldn't have them do anything that I couldn't do myself. And if they were in situations that they couldn't get out of, I would involve myself to help them. I am not just a spiritual deity of the planet and its human embodiment, but I'm also a concerned parent. Maybe the question should be…how do you live with yourself, having committed the crimes you committed? Against the people you claim to care for?"
"You just reminded me of Mako and Hei-Bai," Yui told her, "and it felt like they both judged me guilty for trying to create a bright future for all of mankind."
"It's your interpretation of a bright future that must be avoided because it's not right. It's wrong and exploits the crippled will of a young man that couldn't make the right choice with everyone forcing him to do things he's uncomfortable with doing. And you actually attempted to put everyone's fate in the hands of the child you left to play the will of an abomination you made from the flesh of mortal deities beyond you. What made you think that you were doing the right thing?"
"But what makes you think what you're doing is the right thing with the condemned souls?"
"Unlike mortal souls, lost souls have no physical limits and nothing and no one to lose. I can't and won't exploit the souls of people still among the living. I'm not a tyrant. Tyrants are cruel and uncaring of those the lives they harm. You and your husband, along with the people you work for must be tyrants, for they do not care for the lives they harm, so long as they get to have their way. How desperate were you to do all that you did?"
"I wasn't desperate," Yui told her, looking away.
"Then why, and I must ask, did you try to make your youngest son carry out your goal when he was alive and pure? And why did you leave him to suffer? Surely, you didn't think he'd stay pure as time went on, as if he were going to be unchanged by the cruelty of those around him, did you? A family of relatives that made him miserable, a father that didn't love him enough to want him around, and you, his mother, who didn't stay with him. Why?"
Yui turned to sit in a nearby chair and sighed.
"Before I even met my husband," she started, "I wasn't as honest with myself or others as I care to admit, even to myself. I knew about Adam and Lilith before Second Impact even happened…and the research obtained from studying them. I have a very specific, scientific skill set. It didn't matter how I used it or why. I view life in terms of theories, equations, mysteries that need to be solved."
"And what are the desires of family and friends? What are family and friends to one like you? A mystery that needs to be solved? A pastime to amuse yourself? A novelty? A phase?"
"No, they're…just people."
"Just people? That's not a very good answer, Ms. Ikari. But who am I to say this? I've outlived countless people I've cared for, and I keep them alive in my heart, cherishing the time spent with them."
"So, you're really immortal? Yet, you live among people? Some would view immortality as a gift to save them from the end of their lives."
"Immortality isn't what people wish for it to be. Even if it were so, there are different varieties of eternity. Werewolves, vampires, demigods, reanimated corpses, cyborgs, binding your souls to inanimate objects or investing your time in supernatural arts. There are always flaws to them, always a catch to escaping your demise. Vampires need blood to live and can't always be out in the sunlight. Werewolves are vulnerable to silver. Cyborgs can't survive without their necessary organics and so on. The only way anyone can view the blessing of mortality in its purest of forms is to be around those that have to live with the possibility that the next day of their lives could be the last day of their lives. I've been around since before the dinosaurs evolved and fell due to their survival of the fittest and the changes in the climate, since before the primordial apes evolved into the first humans and learned of cognitive skills that helped them to survive to the present day, and I appreciate each life lived…and each life lost."
"And you never think that humans are replaceable? Expendable?"
"I wouldn't be able to look at myself in the looking glass if I viewed all creatures of sentience as expendable. You can replace people to a degree, but that's not on a personal level, which is the level of existence that takes precedence within us. People we cherish can't be replaced like a house or car. They will always leave a space within us that can't and won't be filled by someone else that you cherish."
"And yet, you call upon those that are dead to help you? And for what?"
"I promise each soul of the damned a new life in exchange for their services to the Restorative. Even those that have served the Restorative and have returned to the abyss of souls because they wanted to stop are still entitled to what I promised them…and I have every intention of keeping my promise to each soul, no matter what becomes of me. This includes Death and his brother, who need a new life greatly to erase the pain of the past."
"And if I were to say that I'm against this revelation you've told me of?"
"You're entitled to your opinions, Ms. Ikari, as every other soul is entitled to theirs. You can be against my choices and the choices made by others beyond myself, but there's little any of us can do to undo these choices. I believe in my horsemen and the Restorative…with every fiber of my will, and I will do whatever I can to see this cause through to its end."
"My superiors will do all in their power to see that they succeed in their own goal."
"And you'll be sure to help them, while trying to further your own goal, I'm sure."
"Well, regimens rise and fall and change all the time. I try not to weep over them, as I'm Japanese. Or…at least I was before the Second Impact and Eva."
"Oh, you're still Japanese, regardless of the passage of time, and you're still mortal until you've taken your final breath of life and reincarnate within a new body of natural origins. Since you say you were Japanese, what are you now, if I may ask of you?"
"It's not truly all that complicated, Ms. Gaia. I guess you could say that…I have blood on my hands, and I want to wash them off with what I'm doing."
Gaia's face then became stern after hearing this.
"But can you?" She asked her, approaching the glass, her voice losing its friendly tone. "Can your services to your masters really aid you in washing away all that blood on your hands? I mean, there's your father, your sister and her family, the lives Shinji Ikari took. The people that know of you because of your family's inexcusable members, minus your youngest son. I spent some time talking with your brother, Hei-Bai, and he explained to me a great deal of what needed clarity. Your hands are dripping, Yui Ikari. They're practically gushing blood, and you think what you're doing will undo any of the cruelty that has been inflicted upon the world when Second Impact occurred?! Or what happened to the people afterwards?! This doesn't even come close to any degree of human sentimentality, Yui Ikari! You're a child mocking at prayer, and it's pathetic in more ways than I can admit!"
And as Gaia ranted her disgust and disappointment, their conversation was being watched by the staff in Central Dogma, who were shocked by the deity's tone.
"In many ways, you're worse than your husband ever was, being that you both lie and kill, either directly or indirectly, and worse than that in the service of those that lie and kill for whatever reasons they have!" Gaia continued. "Oh, you may try to act with your independence, to be separate from those around you, to have your own reasons for doing what you do, to have a code or something to attach your morals to, whatever you have to in order to try to make up for the horrors you've committed in your life. But until the day you die, they will always be a part of your soul, your conscious…and they will never fade away from even the very breath you take."
Fuyutsuki was hurt by the revelation of this conversation between the women, while Ritsuko wondered what else Mother Gaia was going to express.
SLAM! Gaia slammed her left hand against the glass, causing Yui to back away from her.
"And Shinji's soul still demands that your death be met!" She yelled at Yui. "I won't deny him that pleasure to end you, slowly, quickly, brutally, in any way his purgatory incarnation desires to do so. He still should have the justice of vengeance to watch you suffer, and it's when all said and done, he'll probably smile for once, knowing that all of the family members responsible for his misfortune are dead, and he can finally put the past to pasture."
Yui turned away from, shuddering from such cruelty.
"You're a monster," she uttered.
"I'm no monster," Gaia responded. "No, those that fight monsters need to make sure that they don't become monsters themselves. To be a monster is a damnation…and damnation is to renounce one's humanity. You'd do best to maintain your humanity…because on the path you take, there's always the chance that you'll lose it…and it's not easy to reclaim once lost."
"My son died a monster."
"He wouldn't have had long to live, not with the pain he was constantly feeling. And what point would there had been for him, knowing that there were people after him with orders to kill him?"
"If he had the will to live, anywhere could've been like Heaven."
"Not if anywhere and everywhere were crippled or dying. Nowhere can be like Heaven if it's Hell on Earth. There's no snow or ice in the South Pole, most of the land in underwater, and thousands of animal and plant species have been wiped off the planet. The only way to undo the damages done is to play this cause to its outcome."
"And the other solution would be to implement the Human Instrumentality Project," Yui told her in response, trying to convince herself that this was the way to go.
"If that is what you want to believe," Gaia expressed. "But you won't succeed."
"What makes you so certain…when one of your precious horsemen is so crippled that he's no threat to the likes of his unholy opposites?" A new voice asked her, and both women turned their heads to face its owner.
Gaia was shocked, as was Yui, to see Gendo stepping out of the shadows, dressed in a tattered version of his NERV-issued suit, equipped with a tunic made of bone plates.
"Gendo?" Yui gasped, not believing her eyes. "But…this is impossible. You were cremated three days after your remains were removed of the bullets Shinji emptied in you."
"The masters of the underworld granted him a body so that he may serve as one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the ancient and eternal opposites to my Four Horsemen of the Restorative." Gaia explained. "He's been dealt with by his heavenly opposite before already."
-x-
As the ultraviolet lights singed his flesh of LCL that was sprayed on him again, Death lost more of his power to this cage he was in.
"Such a pity," he heard someone say. "I was expecting the infamous Death, the Endgame to be more frightening, even when saturated with the blood of Lilith, not some shameful display of weakness."
Looking up in front of him, the weakened and deteriorated Horseman of the Restorative saw three, new adversaries that he knew nothing of, but could tell, just from looking at them, that they meant him trouble if they had their way with him.
"This is Heaven's version of Death?" The woman on the man's left side expressed, dressed in petite, skeletal armor and wielding a large sword with a hilt made of bone. "He's not much to look at, as he's wasting away from the blood that cripples him."
"Can I eat him?" The woman on the man's right side requested, dressed in rags and possessing of an abdomen that looked partially eaten away at.
There was something about the colors and their appearances that made the crippled horseman want to understand where and why he believed these three were a threat to his own existence…and then he realized why with the help of his brother, who reappeared after a short while of energy conservation.
"Three of Hell's horsemen," Mako uttered. "You three must be the Apocalyptic Horsemen of Conquest, War and Famine, I presume?"
"A ghost infant?" The woman in rags uttered. "Is he dangerous?"
"No," the man confirmed her. "He's just an aide, a intangible waste of space."
Mako looked at his weakened, younger brother and knew there was no chance of him being able to fight these three, not even to escape, so long as he was in his deteriorated state. Even if the UV lights were to become a liability for NERV, they had already aided the blood of Lilith is draining and reducing Death to a reanimated-like corpse that was close to being able to die of unnatural causes, but still too far away from leaving the mortal coil again.
This was completely unexpected, the ghost infant realized, trying to come up with a strategy to keep these three, unholy fiends from disposing of his twin. Damn it, Mako, think of something!
But try as he might, he couldn't think of a way to deal with even just one of the three.
"Well, Death, the Endgame," the man said, "are you ready to return to Hell to be ripped apart at the spiritual seams?"
Death, even if he could speak for himself, was too weak to try, and too weak to try and resist. All that he could think of right now…was how he had failed to free Mrs. Asagi from her spiritual imprisonment by NERV. How he had let Mana down by not being able to bring her mother home to her family. How…how he had been reduced to failing before he could reach his adjective in the Geo-Front.
The man raised his bow up and prepared an arrow, aimed at Death's head.
"I looked and beheld," he uttered, "a pale disgrace to the mantle of Death. The Arrow of Shame was aimed towards his head…with the intention of sending him back to his fiery grave. Goodbye, Death, the Endgame."
To be continued…
A/N: Oh, dear, this is quite a cliffhanger here. Does it make you worry for Shinji/Death?