Creation began on 04-26-16
Creation ended on 09-25-16
Neon Genesis Evangelion
A New Cause: Try Harder, Try Again
A/N: Surely, the title says it all for you in the beginning.
"You have gotta be kidding me," went Hyuga as he was monitoring what parts of the city he could monitor with the cameras that still managed to transmit and receive.
"That armored horseman's making a move?" Misato asked him.
"Not unless it's to speak with another horseman that just showed up," he explained, and showed her what he meant by that. "If they both come down here, things are bound to get ugly."
Misato looked and saw the horseman dressed similar to a modern-day samurai, turning to face the horseman that had just arrived…and remembered the last time Death, the Endgame had caused trouble for NERV with his mere presence.
-x-
"Death," went War as his fellow horseman got off his horse and approached him. "What brings you back here?"
With his arms and ammunition replenished, Death stopped in front of War and pointed towards the damaged city.
"What brings me back?" He questioned him. "Why, to finish what I started!"
His last three words echoed across the land for five seconds.
"Do you even know what to do?" War asked him.
Grip! Death grabbed War by his armored torso and lifted him off his feet.
"I know exactly what I'm going to do, War," he told him. "Do you want in on this?"
"So long as I get to kill the scarlet one, I'm all for this," the knight answered.
Death put him down and returned to Rumi.
"So what brought you back here?" He asked.
"Doing your job," War answered.
"Much appreciated."
-x-
"…What's going on?" Ritsuko asked Misato as she wheeled into Central Dogma.
"The horsemen," she informed them. "They're back again."
"And the one called Death?"
"Here for an encore."
"Then we'll give him one."
On the screens, the Horsemen of War and Death rode into the city.
"They're gonna get back down here," went Shigeru, worried that a lot more people down here were going to die. "They're gonna get in here, and it's gonna be a bloodbath."
But Ritsuko, still seeing Death as Shinji Ikari, hoped that the horsemen would get in. She wanted to dissect the undead teen that took her legs and put her in a wheelchair.
-x-
"Conquest," Mother Gaia spoke up, getting her horseman's attention in the ventilation shaft, "we need to go now."
"Now, as in right now?" The Poison Master questioned.
"Yes, as in right now."
Bash! He broke open the bottom of the shaft under him and greeted the goddess with a familiar face.
"Somehow, a deity imprisoned by mortals…just doesn't feel like it's going to get any of these people into Heaven when it comes their time to depart the realm of mortality."
"Oh, I don't think they're going to die any time soon, Conquest," she told him, reaching up to grab his arms, and he pulled her up into the vent with him. "Maybe those that get in Death's way, but not all of them. He'll likely divide them into two factions."
"What, those that 'will be murdered' and those that 'won't be murdered'?"
"Yeah, something like that."
"There's something else you should know about. A mortal's soul isn't like those of other mortals. It carries a corrupted stench that should be like those of the messengers, but it isn't."
As they crawled through the vent, Gaia thought about Conquest's words…and realized what he was referring to.
"So someone has tried to play God again," she sighed. "That's something that'll need to be dealt with, eventually. Do you know where the Evas are kept?"
"Yeah, just follow me," Conquest told her.
-x-
SMASH! Death bashed his way through the front door and set off the alarms.
"You're pumped," said War to him.
"Thank you," he responded, walking casually down the hall.
-x-
"Huh?" Hei-Bai went, having felt a strange presence just a moment ago as he lay in his futon. "What a weird feeling."
The feeling he was referring to, however, was a feeling like someone had taken a knife and tried to cut a layer of flesh from his back.
-x-
"We've all seen what these horsemen are capable of when pitted against regular people," went Misato, checking her gun and bullets, "so don't engage either unless they come after you. And if you can't get away from them, then you're probably better off surrendering."
"And what if they don't take prisoners?" Ritsuko asked her. "We both know that HE didn't."
Misato wasn't about to argue with her, and just left the bridge.
-x-
BANG, BANG! Death, encountering a woman that decided to shoot at him, dodged her rounds instead of taking them through his bullet-proof vest or his arms.
He grabbed her by her left arm and simply removed the firearm from her possession.
"Get out of here," he told her, tossing her aside and taking the gun for himself.
She got the message and ran away from him, knowing that he was impossible to kill.
War followed him, unsure of why Death didn't just kill the lady instead of letting her live.
"Oh, my, what an unexpected visit," they both heard someone say, rather cheerful and unusual.
They turned to the right of the hallway, looking down another hall, and saw a young man around Death's physical age, dressed in a white shirt and black pants, grayish hair and red eyes.
"So, you're the horsemen that everyone's been talking about," he expressed; to War, he sounded like he never had conversations with modern-day people.
But when Death saw him, he crushed the gun in his right hand, smashing it to pieces as his sickle was manifested in its place.
"You," he uttered, recognizing this teen from his phantom memories of the life his mortal incarnation never had. "Identify yourself. Now!"
"Kaworu Nagisa, the Fifth Child designated to pilot the Eva," the boy addressed himself, "and you were once Shinji Ikari, the Third Child. Now, you refer to yourself as the Horseman of Death."
"And you're next on my blacklist," Death declared, raising his sickle up.
"Uh, Death?" War questioned. "Are you alright?"
"Go on ahead, War," he told him. "This is something that needs to be resolved."
Something told War that this wasn't something to question Death over, and merely left the horseman to his own decision.
Now alone, Death walked over to him.
"Don't think I'm doing this simply because I used to be a killer in a previous life," he told Kaworu. "I'm doing this because you are an abomination in the eyes of Death…and an abomination in the eyes of the heavens and of the Earth."
"Why, I don't know what you're talking about," Kaworu stated, not even trying to back away from the horseman that threatened to murder him. "I just met you, and now you want to murder me?"
"Don't think of it as murder. Think of it as being liberated from the shackles of damnation." Death told him, stopping three feet away from him. "You look almost like her, you know."
"Like who?"
"Lilith…when she was forced to wear a face that was beyond forgiveness."
"Oh, you must mean the First Child. I never got to meet her. I was told that she was the pilot of Unit-00, but was supposed to also pilot Unit-01 until you were brought over…"
"Enough!" Death shouted. "You might think that your facade can fool who you think is Shinji Ikari, but it doesn't work on me! The memories of a life never lived show me your filthy existence! And that face, that awful face, it doesn't do you any justice! I shall remove you from existence…Tabris."
Kaworu's expression then changed from unusually cheerful…to a look of clear scorn.
"Is that so?" He asked Death, his voice tone matching his new emotion. "Heh, then I guess there's no point in holding back anything if you know my real name."
Suddenly, the horseman felt the erected barrier that was this abomination's spiritual boundaries. It manifested in front of him as Tabris levitated two feet off the floor.
-x-
The Angel alarms went off, alerting NERV to the presence of an Angel.
"What?!" Hyuga gasped.
"Another Angel?!" Shigeru questioned.
"The blue pattern's been detected…inside the base!"
"Where in the base?" Ritsuko demanded.
On the screens was depicted the most accurate location of the Angel…and what they saw was the worst thing so far.
"The Fifth Child? He's the Angel?!" Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki gasped.
"And Death appears to despise him for some reason," added Commander Chansu.
What came next was most unusual: When the horseman seemed to jump back, it looked as though wings with feathers as black as charred flesh briefly emerged from his back before disappearing.
"Was that…was he trying to fly?" Fuyutsuki questioned; this made him ponder just how different the horseman was from the young man he used to be.
-x-
Scrape! Death's boots slid against the flooring as Tabris' AT-Field pushed him backwards.
"Quite impressive," he told Tabris, raising his sickle up again. "But don't think you can stop me."
"I'm an Angel and you're a fallen soul," Tabris declared. "I think the odds are in my favor."
"Everything that has a beginning must always include an ending."
"And what is that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing and nobody is eternal."
"Not even an Angel?"
"All things have an ending. I wouldn't really know much about the potential fate of Heaven's angelic hosts, but all beings with a physical guise will know the release that comes with their final day, hour, minute and second."
"As an Angel, it is my destiny to live forever."
"Not like this. Not with a stolen soul, you don't."
Tabris then pondered how to best this fallen soul.
"Freeze!" Death heard someone behind him shout, and turned around to see at least four men with guns raised at him.
"Limp," he responded, and threw his sickle at their legs, slashing through the flesh and nerves.
"Aaaurgh!" They gasped, falling to the ground, dropping their guns.
"If you value your lives, you'll leave," he told them, as his sickle returned to him like a boomerang. "I'm busy here."
-x-
"Do you know where we're going, Conquest?" Gaia asked her horseman as they continued through the ventilation system.
"Since this is a gamble orchestrated by Death himself, I know where we need to be," the Poison Master informed her. "Even you mentioned it once. We gotta go to where the captive is."
He stopped crawling in the vent and broke it under him, revealing where he had led her as she looked out through the opening as he levitated down to a nearby bridge.
Conquest looked up at her and pointed to the horned, facial armor of Unit-01, and Gaia levitated down to the bridge in front of him.
"The spirit imprisoned inside this Eva is the one Death has come for," she told Conquest.
"And until Death comes to claim this spirit, I guess we can play the role as babysitters," the Poison Master responded, manifesting his longbow and conjuring an arrow to prepare. "So let any that are without any mercy in their souls shackled in flesh make the first move to keep her from being rescued."
-x-
"You cannot touch me, Horseman of Death!" Tabris expressed, using his AT-Field to telekinetically lift a piece of rebar up to use against the horseman.
Death didn't even bother to brandish any of his munitions, as he didn't want to waste the bullets on an abomination when he could use his sickle.
"When my soul was still bound to the flesh of mortality, you would try to get close to me," Death expressed, making no hint at his own disgust towards the young man he just met in this purgatory existence. "You were following the orders of what you referred to as the old men. But your fascination towards human emotions and attachments was hindered by your detachment towards your would-be humanity kept you from fully grasping any semblance of any genuine understanding of the human condition and its benefits and flaws."
"Oh, really? Somehow, I find any attempt to get close to someone like you to be next to impossible."
"If I didn't hate you so much, I'd agree with you. The hatred isn't justifiable, but if I deal with you, nobody will have to suffer because of your existence…and now that I think about it…as Death itself, I have a deeper understanding of who and what deserves death and who and what deserves life…and it deserved life as much as any other creature that clings to existence, regardless of what you viewed as a merciful killing because you are not a merciful person."
-x-
"…What are you talking about?" They heard Kaworu ask Death through the surveillance equipment on the bridge.
"I'm talking about the stray kitten whose neck you snapped in a life that can never be because of my existence," they heard Death say to him.
"What is the horseman talking about?" Shigeru questioned.
"It's like he's judging the Angel for things he hasn't done yet." Misato suspected.
"Or maybe he did do something…somewhere else…and he still holds him in contempt for his sins," said Fuyutsuki.
On the screens, the Angel threw the rebar at Death, who merely deflected it with his sickle, sending it into the ground. Then, the horseman charged at the Angel, with the same wings of darkness appearing behind him before he made contact with the enemy.
"Whoa," Hyuga gasped. "What, is he trying to fly or something?"
-x-
SLAM! Death forced Tabris against a wall with such force that the boy left an impression of his body on it.
"Rraaaaaaurgh!" Death grunted, throwing the abomination to the ground.
Tabris quickly got up and projected his AT-Field again, trying to block Death, but the horseman, being persistent, forced his way through the field.
"No!" Tabris gasped.
"There is no nation in which to hide," he uttered. "There is no barrier with which to shield from me. There isn't even a closet you can cower in where I won't find you."
Then, now invoking the sum of his fear of the horseman, Tabris, being the representative of free will and alternatives, decided to embrace his free will to perform other feats necessary for his own survival.
"Urgh!" He telekinetically propelled himself down the hall as fast as he could go, wanting to get as far from Death as possible.
"Run all you want," Death told him, now chasing him. "All roads lead back to me!"
-x-
They felt the base rattle a little, and Mother Gaia looked at Conquest.
"Death seems to be in a really bad mood, huh?" She asked him.
"I wouldn't call this a bad mood," he countered. "I would call this an ugly tantrum."
"Oh, it's nothing more than a petulant child acting out," they heard a new voice, and the Poison Master turned to the opposite side of the umbilical bridge, seeing the Restorative Death's unholy counterpart, standing at the entrance.
He brandished his bow with an arrow at the ready, ready to impale him with as many arrows as necessary to impede him.
"Make a move…and receive the gift of being skewered," he threatened Gendo, who seemed unfazed by his tactics.
"As much as I would want to cause you trouble, I don't have the authority to do as I please, anymore," he responded.
"Oh, yeah?" Gaia asked. "You Apocalyptic Horsemen usually have as much free reign as your heavenly counterparts do. Why the sudden shift in free will and domination?"
"The Horseman of Pestilence has decided that my service is better employed as a watcher, only able to intervene when ordered to."
Conquest then noticed something different about Gendo from the last time he saw him: A skeletal choker or rosary adorned his neck, with several of the longer pieces that looked curved digging into his neck flesh.
"I guess the infernal masters realized that you couldn't be trusted with your free will, and decided to limit your reign." Gaia suspected.
"Oh, if only that were the case," Gendo responded. "Pestilence made the choice after the last time we were here. Your Death really started something with him that he wants to resolve as soon as possible, so he's waiting for him to show up here."
"Pestilence…wants to deal with Death?" Conquest questioned. "Usually, that's been against the order between horsemen. Why would he want to deal with Death when it's usually the responsibility of the counterpart to deal with such matters?"
"You'll have to take it up with him when he arrives. In the meantime, it's pretty much a stalemate."
-x-
"Quickly," went Ritsuko to the technicians, "flood the halls with LCL! Dispose of the horseman! Now!"
They did as ordered, and caused the new system to release a flood of LCL into the halls.
"But what about the Angel?" Misato questioned.
"We can deal with him and the horseman at the same time," Ritsuko answered; she cared more about Death than Tabris at the moment.
-x-
As Tabris continued to run from Death, said horseman was already within an arm's length behind the Angel that disgraced the other members of Adam's brood.
Grip! Death had grabbed him by his nape and had him locked in a death grip.
"Aaahh!" Tabris gasped. "No! Wait! Let's talk about this!"
"There's nothing to talk about," Death told him. "You can give my regards to the rest of the sinners that will join you in the afterlife."
Suddenly, the hallway began to rattle, and further down it, the horseman saw a wall of orange coming towards them.
"Can you block the blood of Lilith with your spiritual wall that's a cheap knockoff?" He asked Tabris.
"No," he answered back.
"Then you're riding this blood wave."
He threw the disgraceful Angel aside and jumped up, smashing his way into the ceiling above them, right into a ventilation shaft.
The wave struck Tabris and carried him off.
Death poked his head out of the hole and saw the walls and floor drenched in the blood of Lilith, but since he hadn't been covered in it, he wouldn't suffer because of it, and climbed out of the shaft back onto the floor.
"I will not stop until I get what I came for!" He yelled out to whatever hearing devices were active enough to record his voice. "Do you misguided mortals hear me?! You've stolen a soul that doesn't belong to you, and they will be set free!"
-x-
"He bypassed the flood," Hyuga stated the obvious.
"Damn him," went Ritsuko.
On the screens, Death ran down the hall, heading closer to the Eva cages.
"He's really pissed," went Shigeru.
"What's his ETA until he reaches the cages?" Fuyutsuki asked.
"Five minutes. Maybe less."
"What's to stop him from getting any closer?"
"Absolutely nothing, sir."
"But…he can't pilot an Eva, so how does he expect to take it?" Ritsuko questioned; she knew this was true because the person that had embodied the end of life still had to be related to someone still alive and therefore not inside an Eva as a core.
"Except he's not here for the Eva, only its core," Misato corrected.
-x-
He felt the spiritual energies of the soul he sought after, and smashed right through the door that stood between him and precious soul he was after.
FLASH! The lights of the cage were strong, and his eyes adjusted to the intensity, seeing not the black Eva he was expecting, but the purple one that had given his mortal incarnation an unending grief and well of rage.
Of all the vile acts they could've done, he thought, turning to see Mother Gaia and Conquest, and behind them, he saw his own unholy counterpart. I will destroy this abomination.
"What kept you from here?" Gendo asked him as he walked over.
"If it's possible, I shall leave you clinging to existence," he told him, "and if not, I'm sure Hell will bury you deeper than necessary to keep you from ever tasting the pleasures he never got to."
"Maybe…but you'll have to deal with him first," Gendo responded.
For an instant, Death was confused, but then felt the need to back away.
Ding! An arrow that didn't belong to Conquest struck the bridge, missing Death's left leg as it eroded into ash.
Death looked up from where the arrow was fired, and saw Conquest's unholy counterpart, scowling at him for not getting struck by his arrow.
"It would seem that you have lost the element of surprise now," he told the Apocalyptic Horseman.
"So says the fallen soul of the flesh that embodies the mantle of the Restorative Horseman of Death," Pestilence expressed, walking sideways on the wall as he prepared another arrow. "Normally, your counterpart would deal with you, but I've been made an exception to that rule. The damned soul that used to have a connection with your lost soul has proven himself to be completely incompetent at dealing with you, so your fate has become mine to resolve."
Death looked at Gendo and retorted, "If he's so useless, why keep him as a horseman? Why not use someone else as a Horseman of Death for Hell?"
"He has to fail to do a given task two more times before he goes back to Hell for good," Pestilence explained. "His only task right now is to serve as reconnaissance. Strictly serving as an additional pair of eyes and ears for me. Honestly, it may be the only thing he's really good at that he can't fail at."
"And them?" Death questioned, referring to Gaia and Conquest.
"They're not my concern at the moment," he answered. "If they're only after the soul of a worthless woman that was murdered for her soul and the life of her equally-worthless daughter, then that is their business. My business right now…is dealing with you."
"Then I guess my response should be this," Death told him, brandishing his sickle and a sub-machine gun. "My marksmanship has improved since I resumed the use of firearms. Let's see how your archery stands up to it!"
Conquest, seeing where this was going to go, fired one arrow at Gendo and another arrow up at the ceiling, grabbed Gaia by her waist and took to the ceiling with a safety line.
"Oh!" Gaia gasped.
-x-
"Ah, shit!" A male technician gasped, falling to the floor in Central Dogma. "The other horseman with the sword of fire's here!"
War, stepping into the chamber with the blade of his katana steaming, looked around and couldn't find the person he was looking for.
"Okay, where's the scarlet bitch?" He asked them. "Around Death's physical age, looks beautiful, but has no kindness. Completely irritable, despite her attractive facade? Huh? Anyone?"
Nobody answered him, and he decided to try taunting them to get an answer.
"Somewhat irritable, like the fake-ass blond in the chair with wheels?" He pointed to Ritsuko.
"Go drag queen elsewhere!" Ritsuko responded, offended.
"What was that?"
"Drag queen elsewhere!"
His sword came ablaze and he brandished it in front of her face and chest.
"Bitch, I just want the redhead that arouses my violent nature," he uttered. "Don't make me have to settle for someone less than an interest to me."
Even though Ritsuko didn't flinch at the burning blade, Misato brandished her gun at War.
"Lady, you'd just be wasting your bullets," he told her. "I'm no different from Death, with the sole exception of being a dead guy that has a body with a pulse."
"Put down your sword," she ordered him, pulling back the hammer of her pistol.
"I'm going to have to say that I won't do such a thing, lady," he responded.
And Misato fired at him, in full view of the others.
War didn't look harmed by the gunshot, and spat the bullet out onto the floor.
"Okay, does anyone want to see me burn this lady up?" He asked them.
Whack! Something hit War on the back, and he turned around, seeing the prize he had sought out.
"You want me?" Asuka asked him. "Come and get me!"
She ran out of the chamber.
Re-sheathing his sword, the horseman told Misato, "You're lucky I'm not as pissed with you as I am with her."
He then ran out of the chamber to go after Asuka.
"You're dead, scarlet bitch!" He shouted in the halls.
-x-
BANG! BANG, BANG, BANG! Death didn't let up with the bullets he shot at Pestilence, running up the walls of the Eva cage, intending to use his sickle to take the Apocalyptic Horseman's head off.
Pestilence, after firing three more arrows that this lost soul deflected or dodged with very little effort, levitated off the wall they were both on and landed atop the horn of Unit-01.
"It's impressive, your determination," he told Death, preparing another arrow. "And your abilities, too. I can see why the heavens chose you as one of their Four Horsemen of the Restorative. But you know what it is about that really disgusts me?"
"My mean streak for sinners?" Death asked, being sarcastic.
"The disgrace you dealt me the last time we met down here. You inflicted greater injury to me than any other soul, pure or damaged, has ever tried to, and that's hurtful."
"The disgrace that is any sin that is beyond forgiveness is hurtful. Any sins we committed that were unforgivable will always be hurtful."
Pestilence then fired seven more arrows at Death, but he deflected each one.
BANG! Death fired a bullet at Pestilence, watching him catch it with his left arm.
"Is this the best you can do?" Pestilence asked him.
Death replaced his sub-machine gun with his shotgun, pumped a shell and opened fire at him.
Pestilence tried to catch the shotgun shell like he did with the previous bullet, but didn't anticipate being hit by a widespread wave of tiny pellets that were in the shell.
"Urgh!" He grunted, nearly losing his balance on the Eva's horn. "Somewhat impressive, but not enough to hurt me."
Death threw a glance at Conquest and Mother Gaia, then a glance at Gendo before pumping another round in his shotgun.
He's holding back, thought the goddess, seeing that her horseman refrained from going all-out against the Poison Master's unholy counterpart. "Conquest, we need to vacate the room."
"Why?" He asked her.
"Our Death here needs to vent out unchecked."
Okay, he accepted, and they vacated the chamber through the ventilation shaft.
With nobody to get in his way, Death, the Endgame was now free to unleash the full fury of his wrath.
"It's not enough," Death recalled that woman's voice on the television where he met Mrs. Asagi to confirm her mental state within the Eva. "And it's too much."
BLAST! He fired another shell casing, but at Gendo instead of Pestilence, forcing his Apocalyptic counterpart to fall backwards onto the ground.
"Aaurgh!" Gendo groaned as he got back up. "Damn you!"
"Question for you," went Death. "What are never enough…and too much of at the same time?"
"What?!" Gendo responded. "What are you talking about?!"
"If you don't understand the question, then you must be stupid. You had some arrogance to call yourself a scientist. Heh. Ever since you came back, I've seen absolutely nothing to convince me that you're anything worth dealing with in any fashion."
"If he so much as tries to deal with you without my authority, he will be at the merciless fury of my infernal masters," went Pestilence, and fired another arrow at Death, getting him in his waist. "But to be honest with his heavenly counterpart, I do want to see him get dealt with. Just not now. Still…something that is not enough and too much of at the same time is an impressing question."
"Maybe you know the answer, which would make you greater than him," Death expressed, replacing his shotgun and re-brandishing his kama.
Pestilence aimed another arrow at the boy, and glared at him dead in the eyes.
Death returned the glare, but with an emotion that was less as intense as Pestilence's. He had an emotional detachment that lingered towards most of the world that differed from any attachments towards few.
"You care to know what I'm called in the inferno?" Pestilence asked him. "I'm the cutter of diseased flesh and desires."
"And I'm the sin that sins to end all sins," Death responded, baring his teeth in a cruel smile.
"I guess that's another aspect about you that I can add to my reasons for despising you very much."
-x-
"I think we can relax for a bit here," said Conquest to Gaia as they got out of the shafts and into a different cage, housing a different Evangelion. "Such disgraces, these people are in regards to themselves and their makers."
Standing on the umbilical bridge, Gaia looked at the dark Unit-03, deprived of any semblance of life since the day its previous core was transferred to Unit-01. Her eyes couldn't see any trace of anything within the hollow eyes of the armored, man-made behemoth, which disappointed her to no end on how people that embraced science would misuse and abuse it to create artificial organisms that were viewed by her and her fellow gods as unjust outrages against nature. But this hadn't been the first time she stood in front of a similar construct; she could remember the previous few times this meeting had taken place…and how each outcome was like an echo of the one before it, like a broken loop that had no choice but to repeat itself until fate decided to deviate from the original design. Something the Restorative hoped to achieve ever since its original founding…and ever since she saw her children of the first revival after the unforgivable calamity caused by people with irredeemable intentions took their steps back in the healed world.
"Conquest," she sighed, wanting to cease the loop by instigating a different action, "let's take this behemoth while we have the opportunity to do so."
Conquest looked at her and responded, "Why this one?"
"Because these people don't deserve it," she stated, but needed to be more reasonable to her choice. "If the Restorative has one of these, it's one less child being exploited due to the absence of their mother."
He looked at Unit-03 and sighed in acceptance of her suggestion.
"I don't know what we can do with it, though," he told her, and jumped on top of the Eva's head.
"A new lease on life support for the Restorative."
-x-
Gendo found their battle to be beyond what was thought impossible for any ordinary people to be capable of. But the Restorative Horseman of Death and the Apocalyptic Horseman of Pestilence were anything but ordinary. Their strength, their speed, their very drive to beat one another were unlike his previous goals, which were impossible to achieve so long as he was a damned soul at the beck and call of his infernal masters.
Swish! Pestilence shot eight more arrows at Death, but the dead teen slashed each one out of his way before the arrowheads could hit his chest.
"We'll be at this until God-knows-when," Death told them. "I've sparred against the Poison Master's arrows and he knew when to try something different from what horsemen in his position are known for. Can you do something different?"
Pestilence sneered at the horseman and replaced his bow with his claws. He desperately wanted to undo this disgrace that Heaven chose to serve their design.
"I can see why most would have a reason to fear what you are capable of," he growled. "But I'll not be an easy adversary for you. Not like the previous time we were here."
"Defeating you…will make my reason for coming back here all the more gratifying."
Pestilence then levitated into the air, mildly surprising Death with his ability.
"You have no idea what I am capable of, you lost and damaged soul," he expressed.
-x-
Mana sighed as she read through the Book of the Restorative again, finding another picture that featured the Horseman of Death, but with wings, just as she had seen in her dreams. The horseman was flying above the ground, with chains tied to his arms and legs, looking as though he had been captured and condemned.
"…And as souls of the depraved were forced to pay the ultimate price for their sins, Death continued to cleanse the lands of foul blood and unforgivable acts." She read to herself, and turned the page to the next chapter that read, "The Blades of Blood and Birth". "… But as the Scarlet-Blood Priestess continued to demonstrate zero conscience towards her victims, the survivors of the Restorative turned to the four deities that remained and sought the aid of their priestess, chosen to aid the Four Horsemen in restoring the lives taken by the darkest of souls that could never be saved. The Priestess of the Restorative, a warm-hearted and caring soul, not a stranger to pain and suffering, but having the heart to endure and people to help her move on, summoned her greatest protector to face the enemy priestess and her familiar. A giant as black as the night…but with a soul as honorable as the noblest of nobles and unwilling to give in to the poisons of hatred and despair, with arms that could reach where the priestess' heart and soul could, willing to die for the good people that were taken from life and would live once again. The giants of blood and darkness face the unwritten battle between hope and agony."
"Mana?" She heard her grandfather outside her room.
"Yes, Grandfather?" She replied, setting a bookmark in the book and placing it on her pillow.
"I'm about to watch The Crow. Would you care to watch it with me?"
"Sure. Thank you for the offer."
She got off her bed, but then looked out her window, as if expecting to see Death and Mako just now.
"I don't think those two will be back until much later, little miss," her grandfather told her.
"I guess I'm just a little bit of a sucker for wishful thinking," she responded, stepping out of her room.
"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't feeling the same way."
-x-
FLARE! War unleashed a spitfire to keep Asuka from running any further from him, trapping her in the hallway with him.
"You disgust me with your behavior, you know," he informed her, brandishing his sword in front of her. "But you deserve to try to beat me."
He threw the sword at her feet and raised his fists up.
"Go ahead," he urged her. "Pick it up and fight."
Before Asuka could do so, the Angel that Death attempted to waste earlier, Tabris, or Kaworu Nagisa, staggered into their side of the hallway, soaked in LCL. The girl and horseman looked at him and wished he hadn't shown up.
"Now, why couldn't Death just kill you?" War asked him.
With his cover blown, Tabris saw no point in trying to converse with either the pilot of Unit-02 or this horseman, and tried to turn away.
"You're not going to try and stop him?" Asuka asked War.
"Oh, I could…but it seems to be Death's responsibility," the knight answered. "Plus, he's not a true member of the heavenly host. He's just a cheap failure, a pseudo vessel to hold the soul of the real member the host."
"An artificial Angel?"
"Yes…made by the scum of humanity…with the means and will to defile what's left of the world that can be saved from the end of existence."
"Now, I don't believe much of what you said after 'humanity'."
The halls started to rattle, with sounds of metal being worked past their limitations.
"Whoa, ugh!" Asuka and War grunted, pressing against the walls.
"This your doing or that Angel's?" Asuka demanded.
"Oh, I'm sure Death hasn't tapped into the total sum of what he is capable yet," the knight expressed, "and as for the false Angel, it's unlikely. False embodiments lack the true power of original selves. A copy is just a pale imitation."
"And what about you?"
"Oh, my specialty is fire, but isn't that the same with everyone specializing in fire-based tactics? Torches, flaming arrows, swords bathed in flames, missiles, all the way down to nukes and non-nukes, all derived from the element of fire, a gift from the deities to guide us through the night."
The walls rattled again, and Asuka fell to the floor.
"We may have to postpone our little dance of violence for another time," War told her, hating that fate seemed to be against him now. "Strange, though, the more I'm kept from putting an end to you…the more I want to satiate that desire."
Before she could get up, the horseman ran off.
-x-
It was an impressive feat, and the personnel in Central Dogma had to admit to it. Somehow, without even an Entry Plug or a working core, the a Restorative Horseman of Conquest/Pestilence and Mother Gaia hijacked Unit-03, breaking it free from the confines of its cage and smashing through walls with the least amount of security.
"I'm sorry, ladies and gentlemen," Mother Gaia expressed, sitting on the right shoulder of Unit-03 as it calmly ripped through the dense walls to move on. "Unit-03 has become affiliated with the Restorative in the interests of redemption. Don't get in the way, please."
"I don't believe this!" Ritsuko yelled.
"Damn!" Hyuga uttered, but not at the theft-in-progress of Unit-03. "The Horseman of Death's got some serious moves."
Everyone that was watching the security cameras in the Unit-01 cage saw Death facing the Apocalyptic Pestilence, displaying an impressive set of jumps, kicks, punches, even head-butts that were unlike anything a mere mortal could hope to perform.
-x-
With the entire base shaking, Death took advantage of the confusion and started beating the persistence out of Pestilence.
BASH! He took out his shotgun and pistol-whipped him in his face.
KICK! A blow to the crotch area sent the enemy horseman staggering backwards.
"How is this possible?!" Pestilence demanded, about to use his bow to shoot at Death.
Death reacted faster and replaced his shotgun with his sub-machine guns, shooting intensely at the archer from Hell, ridding him with bullet holes and breaking his bow.
"No!" Pestilence growled, regenerating from the bullet holes, but not fast enough.
Gendo saw the way his former son was fighting and couldn't believe that this horseman was once the very same boy that condemned. There was just no comparison between them.
Death's sub-machine guns riddled Pestilence's arms as the unholy rider continued to stagger backwards. Then, out of bullets, he replaced them with his shotgun, blowing a big hole in his abdomen before pistol-whipping him again. And then, casting aside the weapon in favor of his signature weapon, his sickle, Death held the shaft upside-down and swung it horizontally at the demonic fiend's head.
SLICE! The blade cleaved away a large portion of the head, mainly the eyes and top of the nose, and the horseman's body fell into the water beside Unit-01.
"You want a repeat of the spanking I just gave him?" Death asked Gendo. "Huh?!"
Gendo just did what he wasn't ordered to do: He ran out of the chamber; there was no way he could beat this incarnation of Heaven's Horseman of Death. All he could do…was flee into the shadows.
"I gotta hand it to you, brother," went Mako, appearing beside Death. "You certainly made it so that these infernal master should rethink who they choose to become their incarnation of horsemen."
"I wasn't going to let some despicable fiends come between me and what I started to have faith in doing down here."
Using his sickle, he slashed the front armor off of Unit-01, in one swift swing, sending the pieces falling into the pool, exposing the Eva's core. All he could think about now…was the potential smile that would form of Ms. Asagi's face when she saw her mother alive once again.
"Death punishes the guilty for their unforgivable sins…and relieves the innocent…of their cruelest of burdens. And while death is viewed as being cruel and unfair… Let this be a death undone to tip the scales of balance in favor of the happiness for the innocent."
Although disgusted with the Eva that had nearly condemned him in his previous existence and had done so many times in many other lifetimes lived on different layers of existence, Death reached out with his arms and touched the core. They then sank into the crystalline material like some sort of liquid, reaching for who was trapped inside it.
Your death was cruel and unjustifiable, he thought, pulling his arms out of the core, holding a small, baseball-sized portion it in his left hand. I'm bringing you home, Mrs. Asagi.
With his objective accomplished, the horseman and his ghostly twin walked out of the cage, leaving the purple Eva as the lifeless waste of space that it was when it was made years ago.
"You did it, Death," Mako praised him.
"It's only half done," he stated. "Only when a family is made whole…when it truly be an accomplishment…and one to feel proud of."
SMASH! A large, black fist made a hole in the hallway, and then pulled away to reveal Unit-03…with Mother Gaia and War on the shoulders.
"Hey, you two!" War shouted at them. "We're ripping them a behemoth!"
The Eva's arm opened up and Mother Gaia spoke, "How about a lift?"
Death didn't answer, but he got onto the hand as Mako floated upward with him as the Eva lifted him away from the hall. He could feel the presence of the Poison Master within the black Eva.
"Let's leave this forsaken pit," he then expressed, cradling the precious soul in his hand against his chest. "Retribution can come another time."
-x-
It was unexpected, but Mana fell asleep during the film, right after the main character stood in front of the damaged window with his face painted white with black markings modeled after the mask he had found, accompanied by the crow that had brought him back to life to avenge the murders of himself and his fiancee.
Miroku sighed and watched the rest of the film by himself; at least he had some company to watch the old film earlier. He thought about the Restorative Horseman of Death, the only member of these Four Horsemen that he ever truly encountered after his granddaughter and son-in-law did, and pondered the question that was haunting him a little. It was whether or not this former member of mortal society, now some sort of wandering and avenging angel that had a taste for the flesh of sinners that would answer for their unforgivable crimes, could do what he said he'd do…and bring Himeko back home.
Can he really do it? He wondered. It was a struggle for us when she was murdered…but we were able to move on when we left the country. But I guess some wounds really don't heal completely. But can this horseman, this dead child that deals in murder…bring someone like Himeko back from the dead?
"I take it The Crow is still a classic that Mana still has a tendency to fall asleep in front of, despite loving the film?" Mordecai asked, stepping out of the kitchen and into the living room.
"She only does it sometimes," Miroku explained to him. "I can't blame her, though. With the schools shut down, she has a lot of free time on her hands."
"Yeah, she has time to do anything…and here I am, hoping that after spending five minutes on the phone, I won't blow a new job opportunity."
"Oh? And what was new about this one?"
"Carpentry."
"What do you know about carpentry?"
"I've re-roofed re-tiled a dozen or so houses in the past. I've moved a refrigerator here and there. How hard can it be to hold down carpentry?"
"The splinters."
Mordecai sat down on the floor mat near the table and decided to watch the rest of the film with his father-in-law.
-x-
"I don't believe this," went Misato, standing in front of the captured Angel that was Kaworu Nagisa, now in the same prison cell that was used to house Mother Gaia. "You? You're an Angel?"
"Guilty as charged," the boy expressed, sitting in front of her; if the interrogation was meant to frighten him, he didn't give any indication of being afraid of the purple-haired woman. "Are you sure the dead boy isn't here?"
"The base was checked three times and then rechecked," she answered him. "We're short an Eva and no trace of the Horseman of Death or his allies was found."
"I'd be lying if I didn't say I was afraid of the dead boy."
"You? Afraid of Death? Unlikely."
"He came close to killing me…and I'm on his blacklist for something he says I did."
"He said you killed a kitten…in some life he never lived. Have you killed any animals."
"I've never so much as stepped on a cockroach."
"Second Impact killed all the cockroaches."
"That horseman is unlike anything I've ever seen. He had the eyes of a killer that despises killers…and had the Almighty One's blessing to carry out his agenda, which is to aid in restoring the world by cleansing it of its sinfulness."
"Things get worse before they start to get better."
-x-
"Are you positive that anyone looking for this behemoth won't find it here?" Death asked Gaia, standing in front of a kneeling Unit-03 as it bathed in the sunlight of an open field large enough to provide it with space.
"This island is my home, Death," she told him. "Even if you had every tracking system at your disposal, you wouldn't find this giant here. We should go now and see this Mrs. Asagi. I look forward to meeting the mother of the little girl you saved."
She walked away from the Eva and the horseman followed the goddess to a nearby hole that led to another underground system of caves. When Death showed her the smaller version of the Eva's core that contained the precious soul he fought his way through NERV and the Apocalyptic Horseman of Pestilence to obtain, she explained to him how simple it was to construct a body to hold the soul; as she had done it before with the horsemen and had children of her own in the past.
"…As time past and people got more educated on the human body, they understood what it was made of at the lowest level in terms of physicality," she informed him, entering a small cave where there was a small pit that contained a bubbling pool of a mud-like substance. "Still, no matter how complex or frail it is, a human body is still matter that is animated by the soul. As it departs the body, all life begins to flee, as well, and the body becomes matter that degenerates as its components return to the ground, to the air…for something else to begin or go on."
Death watched as she dipped her right arm into the pool. He gestured his possible assistance with his right arm, but she nodded in the negative.
"Unlike the souls that have moved on years ago because of Second Impact or through the actions of you and the other horsemen," she continued, wading her arm in the pool, "a soul that is used to animate the Eva is still within the mortal coil. As long as they continue to reside on the same plane of existence as we do…and so long as they have the desire to return to life… I can…always craft their bodies to be as they were before their untimely demise…and they can live until it is truly their time…to…die!"
She pulled her arm out of the pool…and pulled out a body covered in the substance.
Cough, cough! The body began choking, puking out a small amount of the substance that was in their mouth. Cough, cough!
They got up and was on their legs, looking up at Gaia and Death, breathing like they hadn't done so in a long time.
"How," went Death to them, kneeling in front of them, "do you feel?"
Calming down, the person responded, in a female voice, "Alive and free from the darkness."
He bowed his head to the woman and then looked to Mother Gaia as he helped her onto her feet.
"This is Mother Gaia," he introduced her to the goddess. "She is the one who restored you to mortality. I am one of her horsemen."
"You give me too much credit, Death, the Endgame," Gaia responded. "Her very resurrection, her…picking up from where she was made to stop her life…is as much your achievement as it was my task."
Death then turned away from the resurrected woman as Gaia picked up a brown bathrobe and gave it to her; her body while covered in the substance, was no different from a baby that was just born, deprived of any clothing, leaving her nude.
"Thank you," she praised them, covering up. "Thank you for saving my daughter and I."
"You're…you're welcome," Death responded, and then led her out of the cave and down the cavern.
-x-
"He's afraid of the Horseman of Death," Misato informed Fuyutsuki and Chansu in the latter's office. "He wasn't convinced that he wasn't here until after the base was checked more thoroughly."
"And he was sent here by the people he originally lived with as a pilot," Chansu expressed. "They knew who and what he was…and they sent him here."
"And he was no match for the horseman at all," said Fuyutsuki. "What do we do with him?"
"Doctor Akagi recommends immediate termination of the enemy to prevent him from causing Third Impact, but we have no working Eva at the moment. When they came to free Mother Gaia and whatever it was that Death wanted with Unit-03's core, the horsemen present had used Unit-03 to damage Unit-02. It'll be about two days before repairs to the arms and legs are completed."
"Until Unit-02 is repaired, the Fifth Child is to be isolated," Chansu ordered. "The less people there are near him, the better."
-x-
"…There was a background check into the aftermath of your death," Death told Mrs. Asagi as he stood outside of the cave she was using to get dressed after she was able to wash the mud off her body. "The records indicated that you were immediately cremated after an autopsy was done. The Restorative has several men and women working to setup a remedy to deal with your return to life."
"Thank you," she responded to him, and she stepped out of the cave to meet him. "You were probably never thinking of any aftermaths to bringing me back, but I appreciate all that you've done."
He bowed his head to her again and saw the outfit Mother Gaia had selected for her. It was a flowing, blue skirt with a wave pattern, her feet adorned in regular sandals and her upper covering was a purple coat with a small shawl that extended down only to her elbows (A/N: I don't know the name of the coat, but I saw it on Iron-Blooded Orphans). Beyond that, she looked the same as when he saw a picture of her at her daughter's home, a woman that had been frozen in time, now returned to the present to pick up where she left off.
"Are you ready to return to your family?" He asked her, and she nodded that she was.
To be continued…