Creation began on 10-13-16
Creation ended on 11-11-16
Neon Genesis Evangelion
A New Cause: Enter the Deities
The Four Horsemen of the Restorative were all summoned by Gaia to a patch of land on her island that had been the location of an ancient ruins that seemed to embody a sort of temple. None of them knew why she wanted them to meet her there, but all Conquest could suggest to the others was that she had her reasons for wanting them to be present.
"Conquest," went Death as they got off their horses, "you're the oldest of us. Has Gaia done something like this before?"
"I believe she's done this many times before, but not while I was around," he answered him.
Tying the reins to some trees nearby, the four lost souls shackled in the flesh the Earth Goddess gave them left their horses to venture the ruins of the temple to meet with Gaia.
Death and his brother stopped in what looked like the ruins of a church because they stood on an old carpet that resembled a path leading towards an elevated platform with a podium. Most of the place appeared partly demolished and left to decay naturally, left in the form of ruins. There was sunlight shining through due to the lack of a ceiling and a part of a wall that had holes in it, shaped like a star.
"It would see that this was once holy ground, Death," went Mako, floating beside him on the left.
"Yeah, it would appear so," Death agreed with him, unable to look away from the wall with the star-shaped opening. "That opening on the wall there… Doesn't it resemble a star to you?"
Mako looked at the opening and noticed how it did resemble a star-shaped cut-out, but one of the ends was missing.
"There were five points on that star," he realized, "but one of the points on the upper right side is no longer there."
Death then walked away and noticed a damaged mural nearby on another wall and decided to look at it.
"Hmm," he went, raising his right hand up and dusting off the bits of moss that covered the mural, revealing more of its details to him. "Oh."
It was a painting of Mother Gaia, but beside her on the left was someone else, covered in moss, resulting in the horseman having to dust that bit away. Once enough was removed, he saw that it was another woman, similarly serene and calming as Gaia was, but appeared to be of a different nature than the Earth Goddess. One aspect of the woman he took into account of her different nature was the depiction of a large war fan in her hands.
"Who uses a war fan?" He wondered.
"Not many," said Mako.
-x-
Mother Gaia walked back and forth in front of a large, architectural arch that appeared to be grown from two trees on either side of it. Psychedelic light emanated from within the arch. She was dressed in a green and brown yukata with a red sash with her hair tied into a braid, her face tense with expectation and nervousness.
"It's always difficult to wait for you guys," she uttered, and stopped in front of the arch, turning around to see Conquest and War standing in front of her. "Not you horsemen, but my brethren that take their time to gather their bearings."
They bowed their heads to her, and then Conquest uttered, "How are the gods ever late or on time?"
"Deities are no different from wizards, Poison Master," said War. "They're never late…nor are they ever on time. They arrive precisely when they intend to."
"Yet, time isn't always on our side, Mother Gaia," said War to them.
Within three minutes, Famine arrived…and yet the deities they were waiting for hadn't shown up yet.
"Why does it seem that time stands still here?" He asked.
"Can it be because it stands still for lost souls that aid in such an important part of the restoration of this maimed realm?" Famine and the other three horsemen turned to see Death standing in the shadowed parts of the cave-like setting they were in; this was the umpteenth time that they didn't detect his presence until after he made himself heard.
"When did you get here?" Conquest asked him.
"I just got here," he answered the Poison Master.
"Time isn't always still for you select bunch in need of a reprieve from the stains of mortal despair," Gaia explained for Famine and Death. "While your mortal vessels seem similar to an illusion and your presence no different from a transient guest that wanders the coil of an earthbound realm, time does move for you, around you…and you make time move for others, as well. This is Earth, after all. It's my true state of being. Nothing is ever still on Earth."
"I don't follow," went War, not understanding the way she said that last bit. "How is nothing ever still on Earth? We're still here."
"She's referring to the passage of time," the spirit of Mako explained, manifesting beside Death. "The passage of the seasons, the comings and goings of the people that live and die, and the effects each moment has in the grand river of existence."
"Exactly!" They all heard a male voice that was vastly different from any other male voice they've heard over their respective times and durations. "Still on Earth, but nothing is ever still on Earth!"
The portal behind Gaia began to ripple, and a hand emerged from it on the right side, grabbing onto the trunk of the tree, pulling out the rest of the body from the portal, revealing a man that didn't resemble one from any race or culture that ever existed on Earth. He was, however, dressed in clothing associated with some cultures. They were robes, predominantly black and purple, but with specks of yellow or white all over and a scarlet sash tied around the waist. His skin and hair looked as though someone had sculpted him from the very fabric of the cosmos, with his eyes like white supernovas and his hair like strands of a nebula wrapped together to form a series of dreadlocks.
Gaia bowed her head to him in a welcoming manner.
"Genki, my brother," she greeted, "it's good to see you again after so long."
Behind the male deity, Genki, the portal rippled and another individual emerged. This one was a light-skinned woman of similar age to Gaia, albeit a few years younger, but with a completely different identity from the Earth Goddess. Her attire was that of an yellow-orange leotard with silver wristbands and ebony boots that reached up to her thighs, but what set her apart from Genki and Gaia a bit more than usual was the fact that on her back were a pair of large, metallic, fairy wings that hung on her exposed shoulders like a cape.
"Malu…I think," Gaia expressed; she didn't expect her sister to change her appearance after the last time they met, which was to discuss the discord that occurred fifteen years ago.
"Oh, it's me, big sis," the fellow goddess responded. "I just needed to individuate myself a little more than I used to."
The portal rippled once more and a third deity emerged from it. A man with blue skin and what looked like coral for hair and eyebrows. His attire was armor with a fish or merpeople theme, for it was petite in its appearance, but seemed light and had scales like a fish. What stood out mostly on this deity was that he had slits on both sides of his neck and a large, serpentine tail protruding from the exposed flesh on his back.
"Kai," Gaia greeted her second brother.
"Gaia," the deity, Kai, responded, bowing his head to her, and then looked at the Four Horsemen. "The Four Fallen Ones. How great it is to finally meet you on the same plane of existence."
Conquest, War and Famine bowed to the deities, but Death didn't do much except look at them each with his vacant, emotionless expression.
Mako, on the other hand, just gave a small wave.
"Horsemen," went Gaia, "these are my brothers and sister. Genki, the God of Aether or Energy. Malu, the Goddess of Wind or Air. And Kai, the God of Water."
"Aether, Earth, Water and Air," said Mako, though he was confused with the number of deities.
Death slowly approached the gods and stood in front of them.
"Is this all of you?" He questioned.
"Yes," Malu answered him.
"No disrespect, but you're short a deity, I believe."
Conquest and War looked at each other and then at Death and the deities, realizing that he was right.
"Sadly, we are," said Genki in acceptance of this truth. "Our brother deity, Pyre, the God of Fire…left us a long time ago."
"The five elements of existence that make up the universe," War uttered. "Aether, Earth, Air, Water…and Fire. Why did this…Pyre leave you?"
"He took his reasons with him when he left," explained Kai.
"Could he be somewhere on this plane of existence?" Conquest suggested.
"Unlikely," Malu told him. "Gaia has been here on this plane the longest and, as the planet is her very body, she has a special awareness of other deities that would be here. If Pyre were around in the mortal coil, she'd be the first to know before Genki would."
-x-
Many of the elderly people that made up the Restorative were impressed to see the other deities besides Mother Gaia, amazed and relieved to see other gods walking among them. The children were confused by their presence, but once their parents or guardians explained that they were another necessity to the healing of the world and the return of those taken over the years, they accepted this truth, because it really was the truth.
Death, however, felt that four deities seemed like a close enough success in this scenario to revive the planet, and that it would be next to difficult for them to achieve total success. But he didn't share his belief with anyone around him, not even his brother.
"Death?" He was standing in front of Gaia, who was standing in front of a large sword that had been jammed into ground and had been there for perhaps an eternity, gathering rust and the like on the blade. "Is something wrong?"
"What he like before he left?" He asked her. "Pyre, I mean. What kind of person was he like?"
Gaia sat down in front of the ancient blade and welcomed Death to sit beside her, which he did.
"Unlike the rest of us, he represented the combative qualities of fire, which some could view as an offensive force. Pyre was the guardian and keeper of the primordial flames that spread across the stars. I saw him when he gifted the primordial members of the human race the knowledge of fire to bring light to the darkness, to begin their first steps toward developing civilizations. He represented all that fire was and still is to this very day and moment. The passion of its heat, the intensity of its temperament, spark of life when started and the loss of life when burned out."
"Creation…and destruction?" He asked her.
"Yes. Pyre is both creation and destruction, but he was always a benevolent force when it came to the destruction. Whenever a forest grew too dense with trees that were no longer able to provide life to the rest of the super-organism and required clearings for new growth, he would only burn those trees to ensure that something new could grow where they died. While still playing the role of a destroyer, he never tried to go too far when doing what he did, either directly or indirectly. In a way…he was similar to War, the Violent One and yourself."
Death tilted his head to his right and expressed, "No disrespect intended, but I have my doubts that I am anything similar to the God of Fire."
"No disrespect taken, Death. It's not easy to find or even see similarities between mortals, former mortals and deities. Five gods that embody the five elements of existence. The Five Primordial Ones. We've been around since dawn of the primordial organisms that would evolve over time into different creatures that would become the ancestors of creatures people would know of in the past and present. Our souls scattered from mortal existence until we were slowly pieced back together."
"Deities require specific actions to make their presence known."
"That's right, Death. I was here long before Lilith arrived, but required her essence, her primordial fluids to return to the physical plane."
"Yet you're the mother of all life on Earth…not Lilith."
"One could say that I am the best example of what a mother is."
Death then got up and stood in front of Gaia again.
"You get no argument from me on that," he told her. "As one of the horsemen, I have seen certain examples of people being parents, actually being parents…and not just playing a false role that has real consequences for everyone."
Gaia got up as a breeze swept past the two.
"I may seem cruel for saying something of this sort," he expressed, "but there are only two types of women that have children. There are those that are truly mothers…and those…that don't deserve to be called mothers."
This, of course, was also influenced by his mortal life up to his demise, how a woman that should've been his mother, first and foremost, just went and betrayed him.
Gaia nodded her head in agreement with his choice of words, reminded of her adopted daughter before she was killed by Second Impact, the arrogance of mankind's cruelty towards one another and the Earth herself. While most physical injuries could be mended over and time and one could find the means to move on, not every wound was physical and could be healed. Innocence was taken, friends and family shattered by foul play, and a great price was paid by the many that knew nothing of what was forbidden that the few desired. But the day would come, as it had many times in the past where these critical periods occurred, when the reversal would happen, when the few that desired the forbidden would have to pay the price for the many they harmed, one way or another.
"Do you have examples of your belief?" She asked Death, just wanting to know that much for now.
"Two for the former… One for the latter," he responded. "Hiroko Serizawa, one of the women I saved that night in Nagoya when I punished those men that defiled her and her family…and Himeko Asagi, the mother of Mana Asagi. They truly love their children and were willing to do whatever it took to save them from the cruelties of others. From where I stand on the metaphorical plane, they have every right to call themselves mothers, just as you do. The one that does not deserve such a right…is Yui Ikari…and she never will have that right."
He then bowed his head to Gaia and turned away.
"Death," she stopped him for awhile longer, and he turned back to face her. "The night of Samhain is almost upon us. It is a night of which dead souls may walk amongst the people. It is also a night of which sin can reach a critical mass if left unchecked. What shall be your objective or objectives on that night when children shall indulge in the modern festivities of dressing up as embodiments of light and love and darkness and hatred and the gathering of sweets?"
"My objectives are the same as any other day or night that I go out looking for sin to condemn to the inferno. Punish the guilty while preserving the innocent."
"What of the Asagi family? Will you not indulge them with your presence?"
"As I am, I stand out amongst the crowd."
"When will anyone notice the Grim Reaper when he has existed in many forms throughout united history? As the Horseman of Death, you're not bound by the limitations of the human body. Your very mantle provides you with unrestricted access to the total sum of your deceased victims up to the present. If you need to go somewhere without drawing much attention to yourself, you can assume the appearance of someone you killed. You can be of any ethnicity or race associated with your victims, know their secrets, exploit their hidden histories to your benefit. Or for fun, you can dress up as the stereotypical Grim Reaper. Skull mask, black robe or cloak, skeletal limbs, scythe. You have options. Exploit your options. Be more than what you have already become, my angel of the graves."
Death nodded and then turned away, and for a moment, just a moment locked in time, Gaia saw, behind the horseman on his back, a pair of large wings shrouded by darkness, shifting between the stereotypical wings often associated with angels to the draconic wings often associated with winged demons, and then they were gone.
He's even stronger than I thought he would be, she thought, impressed by the momentary sight of the wings. He may be the next Horseman of Death to reach the zenith of the angel he used to be…and the first horseman to rise back up as one of the Four Archangels of Humanity.
Maybe, she heard her sister's voice in her head, as a gathering of flower petals in the air manifested in front of her, dissipating to reveal Malu. Why do you continue to address their former identities as archangels when they are much higher in such a hierarchy of celestial beings?
When Death was further away from where the goddesses stood, Gaia confessed, "I refer to them as such because it makes them feel closer to humanity in a way. They're not just celestial beings that fell from grace trying to protect mankind from a grand darkness that threatened to consume their light. They are also former mortals in need of redemption from the unfairness they were dealt. What are the Four Horsemen to you? To Genki? To Kai…or Pyre?"
"To me, they are the Four Seraphim of Eternal Redemption. To Kai, they are the Four Harbingers of Infinite Hope. To Genki, the Four Guides to the Kingdom of Forgiveness. And to Pyre…they were the Four Souls of God."
"And what are they to God?"
"The same as we are to God… They are reliable and just. We all do…what we know we can and will do to return people who want to return to the path of hope and forgiveness to said path."
"Do you ever think of Pyre? Why he left us?"
"I do…and it never gets easier for any of us. My last memory of him was just how angry he was. Whatever happened when we tried to heal the world for the first time, it just drove an unseen wedge between us."
Gaia held her arms out and Malu came over and let her big sister hold her; the Earth Goddess knew when the Wind Goddess needed a hug or a shoulder to lean on, despite their elemental embodiments being viewed as natural opposites.
"The souls of those that did ascend to Heaven are displeased with the displacement of the souls that were taken because the Second Unforgivable Calamity. We've been trapped in an unending loop ever since the First Unforgivable Calamity came…and came again…and again…and again for as long as I can remember, but each time these events came, they were brutal." Malu told her.
"I know, and ever since we've been trying to break from this loop. But I can own up to the fact that our previous attempts were no different from simply putting a small bandage on an open wound and not treating it with iodine. I have always hoped for more time for the good people of this world, that they can rise from the ashes of shame and despair and escape the chains of their inherent doom."
They stopped hugging then and Malu levitated at least two feet off the grass.
"As with the previous races of civilizations, how is mankind any different in terms of their existence?" She asked Gaia, wanting her opinion. "They're all your children…and yet the ones that misbehave, they condemn the rest to eternity in a collective of inescapable unity that is unnecessary and violates the sanctity of individuality…time and again, seemingly failing to learn from their mistakes…and repeating them in ways that are much worse than the previous times."
Gaia thought back to the last time this all happened, an eternity ago in the sea of time and space…and how in that previous aftermath of salvation and recovery, she had to bury the remains of the people that gave their lives to undo the mistakes that were made…and had to do penance for each soul that didn't return to life.
"In Genki's choice words before the discovery of languages," she told her sister, "those that never take the time to understand the potential consequences of the choices they've yet to make are the ones that are youngest out of the whole. But while true redemption comes from those that see the errors in what they've done, they see the grace in their failings and know better than those that choose to walk the path of disgrace over and over again. It is still among my grandest of privileges to be among them over the generations, the years, decades, back in the past and forward into the future."
"And Kai says you're unbearably sentimental towards us all."
"Heh. Well…I learn many of my sentiments from my children."
-x-
In the ruins of the church-like setting, Genki sat in one of the decayed benches in front of the podium, thinking back to a time when the ruins were just a church where the people could come and pay their respects to the Five Primordial Ones. Back in a time before the days that led up to the very birth of the people that would lead to the birth of Christ or the belief in the Dark Ages. He sighed as the memory of Pyre displaying his sense of rage that seemed unusual, compared to his other bouts of anger, sometime after the very first restoration of the world many lifetimes ago in the past, and then his departure from the whole, unable to continue being a part of what he felt was just an eternity of broken hopes for a better future.
"Pyre," he expressed, looking up at the sky, "what happened to you? What drove you leave us the way you did?"
"Perhaps we'll find out if we ever see him again," he heard the suggestion of Gaia as she appeared beside him, standing on the path leading away from the ruins.
He turned to face her and felt the presence of a different aura of energy emanating from her human form alongside her own aura of energy.
"Gaia, what have you done?" He asked her, concerned.
"Trying to help end this endless loop we're all in by deviating from I did the last few time," she explained. "I've taken the necessary precautions against potential harm."
"If you were to become compromised, if you were to be captured in this state and the people that wanted what you had the horsemen and the Restorative take to ensure everyone's protection, you'd be bringing back one of the keystones to their end."
"We have the edge in keeping this from happening again this time, brother. They don't have a behemoth made from the flesh of Lilith that works without a soul belonging to a woman that bore children in the past fifteen years since the Second Unforgivable Calamity that they refer to as Second Impact. They don't have the Spear of Longinus in their possession, either. The Angels, Adam's children and Heaven's messengers, won't go anywhere near Lilith, and they're in position across my true body, all save one of them that has yet to arrive. Every attempt at unmaking existence has revolved around the forbidden union between Adam and Lilith; while NERV may still have Lilith, we have Adam, and my safety measures will ensure that, even if something happens to this corporal form of mine, he can't be used to undo the world this time around. I…I didn't do enough the last time. I aim to do more this time so that, hopefully, this loop won't happen again for a long, long time. Ever again."
Genki stood up in front of his sister and held her in his embrace.
"You always take these risks that you needn't take," he told her. "What we're doing now, what we've done before…many times over…and what the few people that long to unify the souls of people again and again… Respectfully, Gaia…it's not enough…and it's too much."
"Just like death and destruction," she agreed with him. "But I do have faith in breaking from this cycle for good. I don't want for any of my children, my family and friends, to suffer from the Third Unforgivable Calamity all over again. I keep a constant reminder of why it's not appreciated or accepted by others."
"You mean, you scar yourself with the reminders that exist in human history, such as the periods that occurred in the Twentieth Century? The World Wars?"
"Not everything deserves to be forgotten. I still have the scar that represents Hiroshima and Nagasaki."
"I keep a scar that represents the birth of the universe. Immortality can't stop one from feeling mild discomfort when sitting down."
Gaia then undid the top of her yukata to expose her bosom to Genki, revealing how her human form served as its own record of the cruelest outcomes that befell both her, animals and mankind. On the top curves of her breasts were dark markings that resembled the places that suffered greatly during the two wars. While they almost resembled partially-healed areas of flesh, their bruise-like coloring had another story to tell entirely.
"Those are awful," he told her as she redressed her top.
"They're meant to be that way," she told him. "Sacred blessings count for nothing when those lives are ended and can't be brought back."
Genki could understand what she meant by those words. It was no different from a persecution. These massive losses of life by a select few were nothing more than a massive persecution of the innocent…and how their guilty desires were for naught because of the unforgiving cruelty.
"God will bless the innocent with protection once more when we fix this series of arrogance against the world," he told her.
-x-
Death, trying to take it easy until the night of Samhain, was laying on the grass on the open field, looking up at the calm, blue sky. It seemed different than the previous times he relaxed, like nothing was happening anywhere. Yet, he knew this was untrue, as something was bound to happen, sooner or later, being intimately familiar with the aspects of causality. It was something he didn't understand completely when he alive until Gaia explained the word for it.
"A child can't keep their hand out of the cookie jar to grab the nearest cookie without influencing the actions of farthest wolf in the woods," he uttered, and knew that he himself couldn't risk taking it easy without letting the sinners left in the world replenish their numbers or regroup to continue their ill-desired actions upon the innocent. "They make the world an unhappy place…and I am one of the few with the means and will to end their reign."
"There will be criminal activity bound to be at its highest on Halloween, brother," went Mako to him, manifesting over his head. "You can take them out as the night wanes with each passing hour."
"On any night, Halloween or not, there will be Hell to pay for the guilty scum."
"To make them pay, however, one must act."
Death then got up and said that he would need a costume appropriate for Halloween.
-x-
The personal domain of Pyre never changed from it paradise-like setting, but the fiery being didn't smile or find any peace in his private place in Hell. As the night of Samhain was steadily approaching the realm of the mortals, he decided that he would be among the souls that wander the land of the living.
"If only it were possible to pull people from the realm of the dead back into the land of the living," he sighed. "If only those that have been dead for a very long time could be brought back, then there would be no need for the actions or desires to bring about these…enlightenments of mankind."
In Pyre's mind, the word "enlightenment" was synonymous with words like "gathering", "condemnation", "imprisonment", "unholy unity"…and "instrumentality". Some of these words he used very sparingly, if he used them at all. He compared these words to the concept of materiality or possessiveness; there were those consumed by certain sinful desires, such as greed or gluttony, that would do whatever they could to obtain the most of anything, even if it meant wasting what was already obtained.
"I could never condone their decisions," he told himself as a fiery portal appeared in front of him in his domain, "but I can't forsake the potential, positive possibilities that come after those decisions."
He walked into the portal and it closed behind him, leaving his domain empty.
-x-
Halloween was nearing, and there was no denying the possibility that the criminal elements of the world would be out and about among the good people. This left Yui Ikari thinking of the lack of safety measures to ensure the protection of the civilians that would be out on the streets…and the horseman who used to be her youngest son that despised her.
"So, I hear that there's supposed to be some sort of curfew to be implemented for Halloween," went Namu to Yui.
"The curfew is the only fail-safe the local authorities have in case…he shows up," Yui said.
"With the degree of criminal activity that is expected to happen that night, it's guaranteed to be a night where a dead person walks among the living."
"Oh, subject change. A friend of mine took this picture and thought you should know what is up with the family the horseman frequents."
Namu showed her a picture of the Asagi family at a clothing store…and Yui saw a woman that bore an uncanny resemblance to Himeko herself, wearing a blue dress with a yellow star on the chest.
"When was this taken?" She asked him.
"A week ago," he answered.
If she timed that with the report from NERV HQ about the latest attack by the horsemen and the theft of Unit-03, then that meant that, somehow, through means not possessed by SEELE or scientists under their control, one of the women that bore children after Second Impact had been resurrected and returned to mortality.
He brought her back? She thought, seeing the little girl that was Mana smiling happily at Himeko; it was a smile that only a child that had been happily reunited with their mother could express. He brought her back.
If there was any emotion that Yui felt at this revelation, it was resentment. Resentment because of how her family had been tattered, shattered and scattered…and how this family of a former friend that she tried to recruit to her cause had been restored to its sense of wholeness by the damned soul of Shinji Ikari. Not only did this eliminate Mana Asagi from the list of pilot candidates for the Eva program, meaning she couldn't pilot any Eva, no matter what was attempted, but this made Yui…very upset with their family harmony. Upset that the Restorative Horseman of Death was willing to do whatever he needed to in order to right a wrong made years ago…but unwilling to contemplate that he was only delaying what she felt was inevitable…and needed to happen.
"I take it that this woman is someone you used to know?" Namu asked her.
"Not as well as I thought I would know my own children," she responded.
To be continued…
A/N: I'm pissed off with the results of the election. There, I own up to it. I admit it. I'm pissed. Anyone else pissed as I am?