Bright, everything was bright white light. For a second it was all Ria could see, bright white light. Then after a few blinks her eyes adjusted to the change.
She was lying in a hallway of sorts, with dozens of paths splitting of from it in every direction, including up and down. Everything around her had the texture of a tree, the thick gnarled bark of an ancient forest. The walls were made of roots woven in and around each other. Everything looked like it had been made from a tree. Ria ran her fingers over the floor. Even the floor felt like it, except it seemed to be made of light as well. It almost resembled a forest made of crystal. The whole hallway glowed softly with white light.
Ria sat up. Kyoko did the same. Before them stood the Mari Leliel, along with a dozen other figures. Most of them were women, with one or two men. Some of them she recognized, some of them seemed vaguely familiar, and others were complete strangers. Each of them seemed to be radiating darkness, like black ink spots upon the plain canvas of the hallway.
"Welcome to Yggdrasil" one of them said, presumably Sayaka Makinami judging by how similar she looked to the other Makinami's at the estate.
"Yeah," Ria groaned with annoyance. "Care to explain what that means, or is Norse Myth real and we're actually Frost Giants?"
"It's just a name," Sayaka admitted, "but it is a fitting one. Yggdrasil is a construct, or rather a series of overlapping constructs made by numerous different NERVs and similar organizations. It is the bridge between universes. It's roots go to a dozen versions of reality, it's branches reach thousands, twisting through the very fabric. Existing at every point in time."
"Okay," Kyoko said. "Why the heck are we here, though?"
"Because we needed a place free from prying eyes to speak," a bottle-blonde haired Leliel replied.
"And you needed be in control as well, I imagine," Ria snarked as she looked over the group. "What is this, anyways? Did you form a Leliel club or something? Because that's hilariously egotistical."
"More of a mutual alliance," Ria flinched as she realized the Leliel talking was another Kodama. "We aid each other, help solve our problems, fix other universes. Protect what can be protected."
'Really starting to get why Lilith hates her so much,' Ria grumbled mentally.
"By throwing other people at the problem so they can fix it for you?" Kyoko snapped.
"Wait, if the tree exists at every point in time, couldn't you just go back and fix things?" Ria questioned. "Seems like you're making this more complicated than it needs to be."
"It's not that simple," Sayaka replied. "Come, walk with us."
Ria and Kyoko reluctantly followed Sayaka and the others to what appeared to be an arched doorway with a door of frosted glass.
"This leads back to your home," one of the Leliel explained. "To when we left, plus however many minutes we've been here. If we were to travel to another door and exit there, we would wind up in that universe at roughly the same time. Time is constant at the doorways."
Ria pinched the bridge of her nose. "But you just said..."
"We are in a space outside of time," Sayaka interrupted. "The doors are bound by the flow of time due to being part way in the other universes they travel to. But Yggdrasil itself..."
She ran her hand along the wall, blackness briefly hiding some of the light.
"Imagine each branch is a river, flowing from the Big Bang of each universe, to its final end," she explained. "The doors are like rafts without oars, carried by the river in one direction, never stopping. But Yggdrasil is an imperfect structure, there are weak points in it that can be used to force an entrance with enough strength."
"So you're not only playing god, you're also intentionally using the massive, trans-dimensional structure that connects to everything that ever existed in a way it was not designed for?" Ria was aghast. "This is why Lilith hates you, you know."
"Well, it doesn't connect to every universe," the Kodama-Leliel chimed in. "'Only' a few thousand universes at best. I mean, theoretically there's an entire omniverse out there. Limitless numbers."
"Not. The. Point," Ria said tersely. "You screwed with Kyoko's life, Koda's life, and all of the Pilots' lives. You never asked if any of them if they wanted to help, you never took an active role, you never came to anyone for help."
"Do you know how many Rias I've encountered?" Sayaka asked. "I've seen versions of 'you' where your mother died in childbirth and Misato formally adopted you. Worlds where you were Crown Princess of Japan, where you were born Arael, Ramiel, Shamshel. Worlds where magic existed. I've seen versions of you eviler than Ramiel. I've also seen versions of you that were kind and gentle people. All of them in universes that would have suffered greatly without our intervention. Our universe would have suffered horribly had I not brought in the Pilots! Ramiel would have had decades to enact his plans-"
"You could have talked to us!" Ria shouted.
"I did!" Sayaka shot back. "None of them listened to me when I warned them of the dangers. And you were too close to Sachiel to risk contacting. No one knew where you stood on anything. You had cut yourself off from everyone save Okito. Every assumed you two were on the same page."
"I wasn't…" Ria paused, calming herself. "We're getting off-topic. We came for two reasons: One, the kidnapped Leliel. Two, making sure you actually get all the people you took back to where they belong when this is all over."
"We're aware of our kidnapped compatriot," the Mari-Leliel spoke up. "We don't know where she is, though."
"According to Dimitri, Iruel has him," Ria explained.
"We figured as much," Sayaka replied. "Ramiel had used her once to grab something, but since then... nothing. That's part of why we grabbed Kyoko Ikari and the other Sachiel so quickly. That threw us into a bit of a panic."
"What did Ramiel grab?" Ria asked.
Sayaka Makinami shook her head. "We're not sure. We couldn't even trace what universe he had been in, just that he had been here," Sayaka replied
Well, that was quite troubling. Ramiel could have grabbed any number of things. And he hadn't used it yet.
"If Iruel has her." one of the other Leliels said. "Then he has to be keeping her in a medically-induced coma. That's the only way to keep one of us locked up. Or he's killed her, but I rather doubt that."
"So look for either medical supplies going somewhere they shouldn't, or someone in a hospital who shouldn't be there. She's genetically the exact same as Himari Yamagishi, Sandalphon's sister. So if you know what she looks like, you know what you're looking for," Sayaka explained.
Finally, some progress was being made.
"So wait, you grabbed an entire city block just because you got spooked?" Kyoko was quite upset at that.
"We had to rush things," Sayaka was apologetic. "We had intended to grab the 'Pilots' of your world as well, the ones we dropped in. Don't worry, everything is safe. Gaghiel and a few other assets are dealing with Zeruel. Your family is safe."
"Oh," Kyoko said with a sigh of relief. "Well, that's good."
"Still, we need you to stay in Ria's universe for the time being," Sayaka replied.
"Could I just go for a visit or something?"
Sayaka shook her head. "We've tried that before. It never ends well."
Kyoko was disappointed, but no longer enraged. Ria still felt like these Leliels were making decisions that they had no business being involved with.
"So, I take it that goes for all of them?" Ria asked.
"We'll return Ayanami when the situation stabilizes, yes," Sayaka replied, looking somewhat nervous all of a sudden.
"What about Shinji and Asuka?" Ria questioned.
Sayaka turned away.
"They have to stay there," she said, eyes turned away from Ria.
"Why?" Ria demanded.
Ria loved those two, despite the ups and downs. They were family, but they had a home, a real home. A home that needed them. People that needed them.
Sayaka still refused to look her in the eyes. "We needed people who would bond with WILLE. People we knew were up to this fight. We didn't use an alternate universe, we traveled back along this branch and found a weak spot during the battle with Sahaquiel. Had we not done anything, those Pilots would have become your parents."
"Oookay?" Ria replied. "That doesn't really answer my question."
Sayaka walked forward, her gaze focused on one of the many hallways.
"You can't alter time, not really," she explained. "Going back, no matter how small the change, just creates another universe."
"So just send them back to the point you altered," Ria said firmly.
Sayaka shook her head again. "That would just create another universe. One where there are two sets of Pilots, and two sets of Evangelions."
They turned down a new hallway, the walls and floor growing noticeably thicker and more gnarled.
"Okay...so just drop them off like five seconds after you took them or something!" Ria felt herself growing increasingly irritated.
"You don't think we tried?" the Mari Leliel replied. "Yggdrasil is thick here. We tried to breach it multiple times. Nothing we did got us close enough to the divergent point."
A wave of hushed talk rolled through the Leliels. And girl looked distinctly like she deeply regretted her last words.
"What do you mean, 'close enough'?" Ria questioned.
"Well, you know... don't want to send them twenty years into a future they know nothing about," Mari said evasively.
Ria glared at her, there was more to this. Dread was starting to boil within her.
"Lady, do not think for a moment that that pretty face of yours is going to stop me from breaking it if you don't start suddenly becoming a lot more communicative. What do you mean by 'close enough'?"
"Exactly what you think," Sayaka said nervously. "We can't send them home because there's no home to send them to."
Ria's stomach knotted within her.
"Gott in Himmel," Kyoko was horrified.
"Without the other two Evas, NERV survived for a while. But when Bardiel came it was a disaster. Unit-00 was defeated and infected. The infected Eva was able to breach Central Dogma and start Third Impact. If you traveled to that universe in the present day, you would see a completely alien landscape, filled with blue skies, blood red sands, and great towers of flesh and glass. We can endure it relatively easily but anyone strictly born of Lilith? Dead in minutes."
Ria felt like she was struck. That mean that everyone, everything they knew before this was gone, dead. And they didn't even have a chance to protect them.
"What... what about the human population?" she asked.
Leliel kept looking away, and said nothing, just shaking her head.
"You... you murdered an entire world..." Ria's voice was shaking with sorrow and anger.
"A world that only existed because of us," the Kodama Leliel said.
"It was regrettable," Sayaka admitted, "but we had no other choice. None of us like it, but it's a call we've had to make before. A world that should have never been or a world that formed naturally? One million vs 2 billion? It's simple math, really."
"What makes you think you have the right to make those sorts of calls?!" Ria screamed. "You're playing god, all of you!"
"We're protecting entire universes, billions of people are alive because of us, because of our powers!" Sayaka argued back.
"And billions are dead because of you! Countless more have had their lives ruined or thrown into chaos!" Ria retorted. "You are messing with the fundamental aspects of reality itself! You're completely out of control!"
"We control ourselves," Leliel-Kodama replied. "Everything we do is decided by group vote. Nothing we do is done without serious debate and consideration."
"We're FUCKING teenagers!" Ria shouted. "A council made Leliels is still a council of kids! What we are doesn't make us better suited to anything! It just makes us more dangerous! You don't get to play god!"
Her rage grew with every second. They were just as bad as Ramiel, merely in a different way.
"So what? We should just let our worlds die?" Sayaka said, growing angry. "Leave this in the hands of Lilith, a neglectful god who uses and abuses us?"
"You've killed billions!" Ria exclaimed. "An entire world is dead, more than one from what you say. No one should have the kind of power you're throwing around. This needs to stop, now!"
The Leliels looked among each other for a moment.
"No," they answered as one.
Ria's eyes began to glow red. Shinji and Asuka had been used, like Lilith had used her. They deserved justice, they deserved... so much more than she could give them now.
"Ria, I know how you feel, believe me, I do," Kyoko whispered, "but if we start a fight here, against dozens of them, we're not getting back."
Ria wanted nothing more than to start ripping heads and beating Leliels with Leliels, but Kyoko had a point. This was not the time for a fight.
She breathed in and out, doing her best to keep her anger under control.
"Thank you for the advice about looking for your missing comrade," Ria said through gritted teeth, "but we're done here."
"Fair enough," Sayaka nodded.
Ria shook her head. What was she going to tell them? How... how could she even begin to explain this to Shinji and Asuka?
