LostDeviljho
Flame Dragon Princess
- Location
- The glorious Pacific Northwest
- Pronouns
- Any
Always Late's version sounds like an actual sentence with intelligible meaning though, so I prefer that one.
Ignis Aurum Probat [Neon Genesis Evangelion]
- Thread starter shadenight123
- Start date
Depends on what or who Shade means when he say stars.
One meaning they, the stars, let us freely chose, incline. The other change the meaning to they forcing us on a path, bend.
Consider it, "The stars inclined us, they do not bind us". It a major hint to the conversation between Shinji and the Angel. And if you read it with what it means, the whole tone of say conversation change.
One meaning they, the stars, let us freely chose, incline. The other change the meaning to they forcing us on a path, bend.
Consider it, "The stars inclined us, they do not bind us". It a major hint to the conversation between Shinji and the Angel. And if you read it with what it means, the whole tone of say conversation change.
Chapter Forty-One: "Caput inter nubila condit"
- Location
- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
Chapter Forty-One: "Caput inter nubila condit"
The pain was real. It was a dull throb. It echoed across his heart, stretched from his chest to the tip of his fingers. He felt cold, his eyes were distant. The corridors and halls of NERV seemed to have lost their light. The colors were faded insults to the memory of brightness they once held within his mind.
Death was an ever present facet of biology. Every dissected frog, every cut open plant that would dry up under the sun and die spoke of it. Filaments of DNA analyzed within miniature glass panels held the unspoken desire to live, but would inevitably die by the time the mixture they were in dried.
So insignificant were the humans to the Angels' will, that it was the same. Every frog killed for a laboratory exam, every leaf plucked and pruned from a hedge-those were human lives. How could the humans claim a high ground of morality, when they did the same? Yet, how could a human live, without necessarily taking from life itself?
The Angels were tools. Leliel called himself such; it did not act because it wanted to, but because it had to. There was a difference, a greater sense of self at work. It wanted the world prepared. Prepared for someone's arrival.
Or, considering the Angel's terms, something from outer space that clearly sought to make Earth its own.
Even so, his mind could not properly latch on to those thoughts. He was tired. He felt tired even after he slept in the same hospital room as his nightmares, even after he woke up in his bed within the apartment that while not empty, felt like it was missing one of its important people, and he could not understand.
His chest was in turmoil because his brain was in pain; Rei wasn't his mother, but he grieved her loss. Yet, at the same time, it felt bitterer to see another pale and blue-haired young woman emerge from the confines of Nerv.
It was Rei, but it also wasn't.
"Quatre," she said, simply enough. "You can call me that, professor Ikari."
She had no blame. She had not asked to come into the world as a clone of someone he considered a friend, and she had not demanded to be born from the same genetic material of his mother. She had asked for none of that, and she had no sins.
"The Unit Zero Zero's synchronization rate is stable," Doctor Akagi would later remark, "But Unit Zero One's core is unresponsive."
The Eva itself was alive, but soulless. This meant one thing only for Gendo Ikari. It meant one resolution for Shinji Ikari.
In one fell swoop, he had lost his father's interest. He had lost his place in the world. He had been kicked to the bottom, and ruthlessly, the boot had stomped harder still against his spine. There was nothing left of him that was useful.
He had nothing to grasp on to; he had no more value. His father handed him a plane ticket to return to his university in Germany. He did not belittle him. They had spoken, and opened up more than ever, but with his utility over, he wasn't needed anymore at Nerv.
He called ahead to notify his psychiatrist, and his voice must have broken through, because he did not remember how he got to the point where he ended up receiving a pep talk, but he distinctively remembered its end.
"Now, Shinji, that is a lie. Of course you have value!" Doctor Schopenhauer clicked his tongue against his teeth, "Look at all the successes you have achieved in your life; all the hard work you've done. It's not meaningless, it meant something. You are being pushed down by your surroundings, by your circumstances, but this does not mean you have to crawl on the ground and collapse."
Shinji breathed, but he did not feel like fighting anymore.
He was so tired. Incredibly tired.
Maybe Leliel had the right of it. Maybe, he should just sleep. Fall into an eternal slumber, to never wake up again, to let the Angels do as they wish and prepare this world for whatever future it held in the name of the Higher Will of theirs.
How did the Germans say it?
Lebensmüde, to be tired of life. To not want to keep on going. To surrender, quietly and softly, to silence.*
"I'm not getting through, am I?" his psychiatrist' voice was gentle, "You need to rest then, clear your mind. When you're more at ease, then we can talk again. Don't do anything you can't take back, kid. Take care of yourself."
It was in the silence after the phone call that Shinji closed his eyes. He closed them, and wept. Even adults shed tears for the misery of their human conditions. To be miserable was to be human; but that was not all that humanity was. He understood that when a wrecking ball the size of a young teenager with bright red hair slammed through his room's door, a construction safety helmet on her head and a heavy hammer on her shoulders.
"Listen up, Shinji!" she said, sharply and with firm determination in her eyes. "Come with me if you want to be happy!" she extended a hand towards him, but there was no second purpose in her gaze. This wasn't a shark, preying on someone bleeding in the ocean of their emotions. This wasn't some cruel attempt at one-upping a dead woman.
This was an act of unquestionable kindness.
"He said he didn't need me anymore!" Shinji yelled, the hammer slamming into the wall. Bits of paint flew in all directions, the wooden surface cracking and splintering. His arms were sore, and tired. His voice hoarse. He did not understand when he had begun to scream, only that he was screaming, and there was no stopping it now.
The pouring of the emotions shattered through the fog that clutched his mind. The burning heat of his anger suffused his limbs, the painful sting in his heart and chest didn't abate, but it burned now, it burned with a different feeling.
For he had fallen, and he had been ruthlessly stomped down further, but he was not defeated. He was not amidst the dead. He owed it to those who had died that their sacrifice would not be forgotten; he owed it to his own soul, to his own feelings and to his own heart. The old Shinji Ikari had died years before, the new one had forged his own path ahead, devoid of care for his own father's intentions or hopes.
The only dreams he cared about realizing would be his own.
"So," Asuka said with a smile, "Ready to leave for Germany together with me? I upgraded your ticket to first class, and got my own by your side."
He exhaled, sweat fell down his brows and his arms. "Thank you, Asuka, but I'm not leaving just yet."
Asuka stared at him, bright yellow safety helmet pushed to the side and heavy hammer on the ground. "You can't pilot anymore now, can you?"
"I can't pilot Unit Zero One," Shinji admitted. "But I am sure there is another Unit that I can drive."
"What is it with that bearded mother-daughter walking fetish that has everybody's desires twisted around his gloved fingers?" Asuka muttered.
Shinji shook his head, "No," he said. "I'm not staying because of him. I don't want to fight because I need his approval."
"Oh?" Asuka arched an eyebrow. "If not for that, then why?" it was her voice that was unsure now.
"For myself," Shinji said. "I-I want to save the world. I think...I think that it would be cool if I did."
Asuka blinked at that peculiarly childish sentiment, and then a fit of giggling left her throat. She laughed, vicariously, at that. "Because it would be cool!?" she cried out, "Oh, yes, because that will be enough to get you back inside Nerv-"
Shinji chuckled nervously at that, "I know, but-I am sure something can be found."
Surprisingly, something was found.
A new Eva Unit, Unit Zero-Three, would hopefully be pilotable with the latest modifications by anyone capable enough with the commands.
What Shinji wouldn't know, was that Asuka herself had decided to attempt synchronization with it, but had most valiantly opted to step back, and let him have that one. He'd never know this; she might snicker at the sudden luck he had, but why would she need to flaunt herself further?
How pitiful that, in the end, Asuka might be the one to count herself lucky instead.
Bardiel would suffer humiliation no longer...
...for the Beast of God woken at last, would cast the world into a haze of death and wrath.
AN: *in the original first draft, this word was the 666th. Talk about coincidences.
As always, blame @Strypgia .
The pain was real. It was a dull throb. It echoed across his heart, stretched from his chest to the tip of his fingers. He felt cold, his eyes were distant. The corridors and halls of NERV seemed to have lost their light. The colors were faded insults to the memory of brightness they once held within his mind.
Death was an ever present facet of biology. Every dissected frog, every cut open plant that would dry up under the sun and die spoke of it. Filaments of DNA analyzed within miniature glass panels held the unspoken desire to live, but would inevitably die by the time the mixture they were in dried.
So insignificant were the humans to the Angels' will, that it was the same. Every frog killed for a laboratory exam, every leaf plucked and pruned from a hedge-those were human lives. How could the humans claim a high ground of morality, when they did the same? Yet, how could a human live, without necessarily taking from life itself?
The Angels were tools. Leliel called himself such; it did not act because it wanted to, but because it had to. There was a difference, a greater sense of self at work. It wanted the world prepared. Prepared for someone's arrival.
Or, considering the Angel's terms, something from outer space that clearly sought to make Earth its own.
Even so, his mind could not properly latch on to those thoughts. He was tired. He felt tired even after he slept in the same hospital room as his nightmares, even after he woke up in his bed within the apartment that while not empty, felt like it was missing one of its important people, and he could not understand.
His chest was in turmoil because his brain was in pain; Rei wasn't his mother, but he grieved her loss. Yet, at the same time, it felt bitterer to see another pale and blue-haired young woman emerge from the confines of Nerv.
It was Rei, but it also wasn't.
"Quatre," she said, simply enough. "You can call me that, professor Ikari."
She had no blame. She had not asked to come into the world as a clone of someone he considered a friend, and she had not demanded to be born from the same genetic material of his mother. She had asked for none of that, and she had no sins.
"The Unit Zero Zero's synchronization rate is stable," Doctor Akagi would later remark, "But Unit Zero One's core is unresponsive."
The Eva itself was alive, but soulless. This meant one thing only for Gendo Ikari. It meant one resolution for Shinji Ikari.
In one fell swoop, he had lost his father's interest. He had lost his place in the world. He had been kicked to the bottom, and ruthlessly, the boot had stomped harder still against his spine. There was nothing left of him that was useful.
He had nothing to grasp on to; he had no more value. His father handed him a plane ticket to return to his university in Germany. He did not belittle him. They had spoken, and opened up more than ever, but with his utility over, he wasn't needed anymore at Nerv.
He called ahead to notify his psychiatrist, and his voice must have broken through, because he did not remember how he got to the point where he ended up receiving a pep talk, but he distinctively remembered its end.
"Now, Shinji, that is a lie. Of course you have value!" Doctor Schopenhauer clicked his tongue against his teeth, "Look at all the successes you have achieved in your life; all the hard work you've done. It's not meaningless, it meant something. You are being pushed down by your surroundings, by your circumstances, but this does not mean you have to crawl on the ground and collapse."
Shinji breathed, but he did not feel like fighting anymore.
He was so tired. Incredibly tired.
Maybe Leliel had the right of it. Maybe, he should just sleep. Fall into an eternal slumber, to never wake up again, to let the Angels do as they wish and prepare this world for whatever future it held in the name of the Higher Will of theirs.
How did the Germans say it?
Lebensmüde, to be tired of life. To not want to keep on going. To surrender, quietly and softly, to silence.*
"I'm not getting through, am I?" his psychiatrist' voice was gentle, "You need to rest then, clear your mind. When you're more at ease, then we can talk again. Don't do anything you can't take back, kid. Take care of yourself."
It was in the silence after the phone call that Shinji closed his eyes. He closed them, and wept. Even adults shed tears for the misery of their human conditions. To be miserable was to be human; but that was not all that humanity was. He understood that when a wrecking ball the size of a young teenager with bright red hair slammed through his room's door, a construction safety helmet on her head and a heavy hammer on her shoulders.
"Listen up, Shinji!" she said, sharply and with firm determination in her eyes. "Come with me if you want to be happy!" she extended a hand towards him, but there was no second purpose in her gaze. This wasn't a shark, preying on someone bleeding in the ocean of their emotions. This wasn't some cruel attempt at one-upping a dead woman.
This was an act of unquestionable kindness.
"He said he didn't need me anymore!" Shinji yelled, the hammer slamming into the wall. Bits of paint flew in all directions, the wooden surface cracking and splintering. His arms were sore, and tired. His voice hoarse. He did not understand when he had begun to scream, only that he was screaming, and there was no stopping it now.
The pouring of the emotions shattered through the fog that clutched his mind. The burning heat of his anger suffused his limbs, the painful sting in his heart and chest didn't abate, but it burned now, it burned with a different feeling.
For he had fallen, and he had been ruthlessly stomped down further, but he was not defeated. He was not amidst the dead. He owed it to those who had died that their sacrifice would not be forgotten; he owed it to his own soul, to his own feelings and to his own heart. The old Shinji Ikari had died years before, the new one had forged his own path ahead, devoid of care for his own father's intentions or hopes.
The only dreams he cared about realizing would be his own.
"So," Asuka said with a smile, "Ready to leave for Germany together with me? I upgraded your ticket to first class, and got my own by your side."
He exhaled, sweat fell down his brows and his arms. "Thank you, Asuka, but I'm not leaving just yet."
Asuka stared at him, bright yellow safety helmet pushed to the side and heavy hammer on the ground. "You can't pilot anymore now, can you?"
"I can't pilot Unit Zero One," Shinji admitted. "But I am sure there is another Unit that I can drive."
"What is it with that bearded mother-daughter walking fetish that has everybody's desires twisted around his gloved fingers?" Asuka muttered.
Shinji shook his head, "No," he said. "I'm not staying because of him. I don't want to fight because I need his approval."
"Oh?" Asuka arched an eyebrow. "If not for that, then why?" it was her voice that was unsure now.
"For myself," Shinji said. "I-I want to save the world. I think...I think that it would be cool if I did."
Asuka blinked at that peculiarly childish sentiment, and then a fit of giggling left her throat. She laughed, vicariously, at that. "Because it would be cool!?" she cried out, "Oh, yes, because that will be enough to get you back inside Nerv-"
Shinji chuckled nervously at that, "I know, but-I am sure something can be found."
Surprisingly, something was found.
A new Eva Unit, Unit Zero-Three, would hopefully be pilotable with the latest modifications by anyone capable enough with the commands.
What Shinji wouldn't know, was that Asuka herself had decided to attempt synchronization with it, but had most valiantly opted to step back, and let him have that one. He'd never know this; she might snicker at the sudden luck he had, but why would she need to flaunt herself further?
How pitiful that, in the end, Asuka might be the one to count herself lucky instead.
Bardiel would suffer humiliation no longer...
...for the Beast of God woken at last, would cast the world into a haze of death and wrath.
AN: *in the original first draft, this word was the 666th. Talk about coincidences.
As always, blame @Strypgia .
- Location
- Warszawa Polska
See, I'm not that bad!
It only took me a year and a half between updates.
Now to read.
Edit:
Just to not make my post a one line joke.
I now read the chapter and all I can say is that I mostly only curious about where the author is going with this.
The title is the only part I have any issues with.
Caput inter nubila condit? To that I say Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses.
It only took me a year and a half between updates.
Now to read.
Edit:
Just to not make my post a one line joke.
I now read the chapter and all I can say is that I mostly only curious about where the author is going with this.
The title is the only part I have any issues with.
Caput inter nubila condit? To that I say Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses.
Last edited:
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Wait what of Rei hasn't she been woken? Shouldn't she remember him beyond just being a husk. I mean she literally synced with 01 because of her love for him, she died for him. And all the next Rei says is call her Quatre.
Also glad to see an update, finally we can get some closure.
Also glad to see an update, finally we can get some closure.
- Location
- Australia, mate
Been so long I had to read the story again just to remember what happened.
I...
I still don't know what happened.
But I love it
I...
I still don't know what happened.
But I love it
Chapter Forty-Two: "Natura non constristatur."
- Location
- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
Chapter Forty-Two: "Natura non constristatur."
The fog spread. It was a thick, rolling bank of white. It consumed and engulfed the scenery. A cargo helicopter carrying a humanoid figure passed through it, and the fog was cut. A soft, puerile giggle echoed.
Then all was silence, and the fog dispersed. A tiny, blueish mushroom sprouted beneath the pilot's seat, and a breath was drawn.
In Nerv, Shinji was confident. The breaking of walls of the days before had actually put him in a good mood, and he smiled while waving to Asuka's figure, who was standing down below with a look that seemed equal part happy and also pained.
He knew he had to make it up to her. He didn't know how, but he might find a way through an internet search, or maybe he'd ask Toji or Kensuke. A sudden chill ran across his spine at the thought. He'd ask Toji. The man seemed like he had his head on his shoulders.
The EVA model looked like the old one, but this had been created with some manner of system that substituted for the soul of the deceased -technology could really reach into places humanity perhaps had no right to cross into- and seemed to actually power up and function.
The liquid he was surrounded in felt different. It wasn't as warm as the one in Unit Zero-One to begin with, it had a colder, more septic quality to it. The machine responded, but it didn't feel alive.
"Doctor Ikari," Shinji called out, offhandedly referring to Ritsuko, "Is there a way to change the hue of the monitors? I was used to orange, this...blue color, it's different."
Meanwhile, on a nearby ejection pod, the Unit Zero-Zero was at the ready, Quatre within.
From the opposite end, standing in the main control room as the EVAs readied itself for launch, Doctor Ritsuko frowned, a datapad in hand as she quickly skimmed through the Eva Unit Zero-Three's specifics.
"There's no mention of that," she said. "I'll have words with the technicians to tweak the hues later, but for now, are you ready for ejection?"
"Yes," Shinji said.
Ritsuko nodded, and the rocket-mechanism proceeded to push Unit Zero-One out. The testing would take place-
The Eva's arms slammed against the ejection mechanism's hole. There was a tremor, and then the Magi's alert for the presence of an angel blared. The Unit Zero-One's eyes shone of a pale blue light, and its mouth opened with a guttural snarl.
"Angel signal detected from Unit Zero-Three!" Maya yelled, the command tower's armored sections coming down as Unit Zero-Zero slammed without being ordered to into the newest Evangelion-turned-angel. "Codename-Bardiel!"
"Activate emergency pilot ejection," Quatre's voice came through clearly, "I will handle the Angel."
"What's going on!?" Asuka asked, even as around her a flurry of activity took place. The Evangelion she had been meant to pilot, which she had graciously left to Shinji to try, was now an Angel? And Shinji was inside it?
Her eyes were wide as she stared at the camera feed, at the Unit piloted by the wonder-doll's twin sister slamming its armored knee into the other Eva, and she winced. She knew that the feedback would be felt. She knew it, and yet she wondered why Shinji wasn't saying anything.
"Shinji!" Misato's voice echoed, "Shinji can you hear us!? What's going on in there!?"
Giggling came through first.
"H-Hello!"
The voice was childish. "Hello!" the voice repeated. "Hello!"
"Shinji?" Misato asked.
"We are-We are-We are we. We are Apostle." The voice was light, breezy. It was a child, singing a happy tune. It was a friendly voice, seeking to play catch in a field with other children.
It was innocent. It was naive.
The Unit Zero-One slammed one of its elbows into the guts of Unit Zero-Zero, forcing Quatre back as a prog-knife emerged from one of its shoulder pylons. Quatre's own knife came out, and both crossed blades in front of each other.
"Release mechanism is blocked!" someone bellowed in the command center. "We can't get him out!"
"Progenitor," the Angel-Child spoke. "Give us. us. Us. Progenitor. We return. Child. Of Lilith."
A brief silence followed as words were connected to meanings, and the end result became clear.
The Angel was holding Shinji hostage.
"There is no choice," Gendo Ikari's voice spoke with little doubt, and little hesitation. "We refuse."
The giggle erupted again. "Refuse? He will die. Son of Lilith. He will die."
"The Magi are detecting an air-born pathogen spreading in the air!" Maya's voice came through clearly from her console, "It's-similar to fungal spores! They're headed for the Geofront! Sir, we're being breached!"
"Quatre," Gendo spoke, and his voice held a tone that meant one thing alone. "Kill it. Now."
"No!" Asuka yelled, her voice cracking like a shriek of an adolescent, "there's your son in there, you monster!"
"Commander-" even Misato was against such an order. Ritsuko looked away; silence settled. It didn't last. In front of them, the knife-fighting was reaching its end. Quatre's skills were better than the Angel's own, and as it dug deeply into the mechanized thigh of its foe, a bellowing scream of pain echoed. Yet, a punch slammed against the Unit Zero-Zero's face, sending it to crash against the opposite wall.
A third arm had grown out of the Evangelion's back, and a fourth soon joined it.
"Why, why-why must you deny-" the giggling was fiercer still, a background noise. "Sons of Lilith. Unwanted. Undesired. Pests. Vermin to our Paradise. Return our Progenitor. Return him. Return Adam."
"We cannot waste any more time," Gendo said, flatly. "The life of the pilot is secondary to that of humanity. Get Unit Zero-Two out there-"
"What?" Asuka muttered, "My-You kept her?"
"The Dummy-Plug system will have to make do," Gendo finished.
"Understood," Ritsuko said. It was as she was tapping away on her Datapad that Asuka saw it, for the first time in a decade. The Eva she had piloted. The Eva that had been her pride, her joy, her downfall and her spiraling into a world of loneliness.
The EVA that had taken away her chance at love; her chance to grow, to let go of her past. The greatest of her life's failure was in its crimson splendor still standing on its own legs, still looking ahead as if the hatred within the system hadn't been there. It was whispering to her mind. It was being settled on the loading bay.
It would soon be freed from its restraints, and allowed to subjugate Shinji's Eva. They would kill it. They would kill him. He'd die.
And she'd be left alone again.
She'd be left alone, with no one else who'd ever be able to understand her.
No. She wouldn't allow that to happen. She had built the tunnel that connected the apartment to the Geofront. She had prepared the passages that led to the EVA loading bay for the pilots. She knew that under lockdown, she wouldn't be able to leave.
It was good that during her time as a wild party girl, she had learned how to steal keys from someone else's pockets. And how different was it, to take a security badge from the slovenly Major Katsuragi, who was tense and hurriedly looking at the screen, and then override the door's mechanisms with the woman's personal passcode?
Outside, there might have been spores of Angel origin. But it didn't matter to her; she was dead inside already. If they wished to feed on her still moving corpse, then she'd allow it.
As the door opened, she heard the screams of alert from within, but by then it was too late.
She was running on the metallic walkway, throwing caution to the wind as with a bellowing scream she roared to the very figure of the EVA standing ahead of her, with the gut-wrenching cry of someone who did not wish to be left alone ever again.
"You took everything from me, don't take him too! I need him! Do you hear me, mother!? Please!"
Her cries went unheard as the massive behemoth broke free from its restraints, the Dummy Plug doing its work as the crimson giant lunged forward, fist raised. With four arms to defend itself, but two enemy Evangelions attacking, the Angel had little hope.
Yet, with a mighty push, the crimson EVA ended up thrown back, straight against the walkway on which Asuka still stood. The orange-haired girl fell, a screaming leaving her lips as she plummeted into the void and the ground below.
"Mama!" Asuka screamed, "Mama!"
A giant hand grabbed hold of her. It was the hand of the EVA. It was the hand of her mother. The Evangelion Unit Zero-Two looked down at her. "M-mom?" Asuka whispered. "Please. I need your help. Please-" she sobbed, raucously. She thought she had outgrown the pain, the misery, the turmoil.
She had not.
The Evangelion's hand moved to its back, and as the dummy plug system violently ejected itself, Asuka stared at the LCL-filled container that she had spent years away from. She did not hesitate to jump in, the commands as familiar to her as the nightmare she had held.
"I'm sure-" Asuka whispered, "That your son-in-law is going to love us saving him."
"Langley!" the buzzing voice in the cockpit was from the Major, which sounded honestly angered by what she had done. "What you did-"
"I DON'T CARE!" Asuka snarled back. "I'm saving Shinji!"
"He might be dead already!" was the reply, "We've lost vitals-we've lost everything!"
"THEN I'LL GO TO HELL AND GET HIM BACK!" Asuka screamed louder still, her mother's fist rising up in a fist as she lunged forward. She had taken some self-defense classes in a variety of martial arts. To defend herself, and to ogle the men there. Also the women. She didn't judge. She didn't care.
It was a capoeira roundhouse kick which slammed into Bardiel's already wounded kick, and a Krav Maga hold which slammed its body face down on the ground. Her fingers slammed into the EVA's back, and as she pried the core off, ripping it with a squelching noise, she noticed how covered in a blue moss it was.
The moss seemed to breathe of a life of its own, and its filaments spread, violently so, towards her hand.
Her screen started to hue blue, and as Quatre's own Evangelion closed the distance, prog-knife in hand, Asuka realized she couldn't move.
She couldn't move as the prog knife impaled through her hand with a deadly sting of absolute pain, and shattered the container where Shinji was meant to be, safe from harm.
There was a loud, unsettling scream.
It was equal parts hers, and it also belonged to the Angel itself. Its last, spiteful heart-wrenching laughter which had nothing human left into it, but was wrong, utterly wrong. It was obscene in its madness, grating like nails dragging across chalkboards. It was a laughter that was a foreboding message of things to come, and which would not come lightly.
All that you cherish, I will take.
Not all is lost. Wake.
All that you are, I will unmake.
Not all is lost. Up.
Hateful Lilin. Monstrous Lilin. Deformed Lilin.
Not all is lost. Wake.
We shall reunite. You shall not.
Not all is lost. Up.
Weep then, Lilin. Suffer then, Lilin.
Not all is lost. Wake Up.
For we do not care about your tears. But I do. Wake up, Shinji.
The fog spread. It was a thick, rolling bank of white. It consumed and engulfed the scenery. A cargo helicopter carrying a humanoid figure passed through it, and the fog was cut. A soft, puerile giggle echoed.
Then all was silence, and the fog dispersed. A tiny, blueish mushroom sprouted beneath the pilot's seat, and a breath was drawn.
In Nerv, Shinji was confident. The breaking of walls of the days before had actually put him in a good mood, and he smiled while waving to Asuka's figure, who was standing down below with a look that seemed equal part happy and also pained.
He knew he had to make it up to her. He didn't know how, but he might find a way through an internet search, or maybe he'd ask Toji or Kensuke. A sudden chill ran across his spine at the thought. He'd ask Toji. The man seemed like he had his head on his shoulders.
The EVA model looked like the old one, but this had been created with some manner of system that substituted for the soul of the deceased -technology could really reach into places humanity perhaps had no right to cross into- and seemed to actually power up and function.
The liquid he was surrounded in felt different. It wasn't as warm as the one in Unit Zero-One to begin with, it had a colder, more septic quality to it. The machine responded, but it didn't feel alive.
"Doctor Ikari," Shinji called out, offhandedly referring to Ritsuko, "Is there a way to change the hue of the monitors? I was used to orange, this...blue color, it's different."
Meanwhile, on a nearby ejection pod, the Unit Zero-Zero was at the ready, Quatre within.
From the opposite end, standing in the main control room as the EVAs readied itself for launch, Doctor Ritsuko frowned, a datapad in hand as she quickly skimmed through the Eva Unit Zero-Three's specifics.
"There's no mention of that," she said. "I'll have words with the technicians to tweak the hues later, but for now, are you ready for ejection?"
"Yes," Shinji said.
Ritsuko nodded, and the rocket-mechanism proceeded to push Unit Zero-One out. The testing would take place-
The Eva's arms slammed against the ejection mechanism's hole. There was a tremor, and then the Magi's alert for the presence of an angel blared. The Unit Zero-One's eyes shone of a pale blue light, and its mouth opened with a guttural snarl.
"Angel signal detected from Unit Zero-Three!" Maya yelled, the command tower's armored sections coming down as Unit Zero-Zero slammed without being ordered to into the newest Evangelion-turned-angel. "Codename-Bardiel!"
"Activate emergency pilot ejection," Quatre's voice came through clearly, "I will handle the Angel."
"What's going on!?" Asuka asked, even as around her a flurry of activity took place. The Evangelion she had been meant to pilot, which she had graciously left to Shinji to try, was now an Angel? And Shinji was inside it?
Her eyes were wide as she stared at the camera feed, at the Unit piloted by the wonder-doll's twin sister slamming its armored knee into the other Eva, and she winced. She knew that the feedback would be felt. She knew it, and yet she wondered why Shinji wasn't saying anything.
"Shinji!" Misato's voice echoed, "Shinji can you hear us!? What's going on in there!?"
Giggling came through first.
"H-Hello!"
The voice was childish. "Hello!" the voice repeated. "Hello!"
"Shinji?" Misato asked.
"We are-We are-We are we. We are Apostle." The voice was light, breezy. It was a child, singing a happy tune. It was a friendly voice, seeking to play catch in a field with other children.
It was innocent. It was naive.
The Unit Zero-One slammed one of its elbows into the guts of Unit Zero-Zero, forcing Quatre back as a prog-knife emerged from one of its shoulder pylons. Quatre's own knife came out, and both crossed blades in front of each other.
"Release mechanism is blocked!" someone bellowed in the command center. "We can't get him out!"
"Progenitor," the Angel-Child spoke. "Give us. us. Us. Progenitor. We return. Child. Of Lilith."
A brief silence followed as words were connected to meanings, and the end result became clear.
The Angel was holding Shinji hostage.
"There is no choice," Gendo Ikari's voice spoke with little doubt, and little hesitation. "We refuse."
The giggle erupted again. "Refuse? He will die. Son of Lilith. He will die."
"The Magi are detecting an air-born pathogen spreading in the air!" Maya's voice came through clearly from her console, "It's-similar to fungal spores! They're headed for the Geofront! Sir, we're being breached!"
"Quatre," Gendo spoke, and his voice held a tone that meant one thing alone. "Kill it. Now."
"No!" Asuka yelled, her voice cracking like a shriek of an adolescent, "there's your son in there, you monster!"
"Commander-" even Misato was against such an order. Ritsuko looked away; silence settled. It didn't last. In front of them, the knife-fighting was reaching its end. Quatre's skills were better than the Angel's own, and as it dug deeply into the mechanized thigh of its foe, a bellowing scream of pain echoed. Yet, a punch slammed against the Unit Zero-Zero's face, sending it to crash against the opposite wall.
A third arm had grown out of the Evangelion's back, and a fourth soon joined it.
"Why, why-why must you deny-" the giggling was fiercer still, a background noise. "Sons of Lilith. Unwanted. Undesired. Pests. Vermin to our Paradise. Return our Progenitor. Return him. Return Adam."
"We cannot waste any more time," Gendo said, flatly. "The life of the pilot is secondary to that of humanity. Get Unit Zero-Two out there-"
"What?" Asuka muttered, "My-You kept her?"
"The Dummy-Plug system will have to make do," Gendo finished.
"Understood," Ritsuko said. It was as she was tapping away on her Datapad that Asuka saw it, for the first time in a decade. The Eva she had piloted. The Eva that had been her pride, her joy, her downfall and her spiraling into a world of loneliness.
The EVA that had taken away her chance at love; her chance to grow, to let go of her past. The greatest of her life's failure was in its crimson splendor still standing on its own legs, still looking ahead as if the hatred within the system hadn't been there. It was whispering to her mind. It was being settled on the loading bay.
It would soon be freed from its restraints, and allowed to subjugate Shinji's Eva. They would kill it. They would kill him. He'd die.
And she'd be left alone again.
She'd be left alone, with no one else who'd ever be able to understand her.
No. She wouldn't allow that to happen. She had built the tunnel that connected the apartment to the Geofront. She had prepared the passages that led to the EVA loading bay for the pilots. She knew that under lockdown, she wouldn't be able to leave.
It was good that during her time as a wild party girl, she had learned how to steal keys from someone else's pockets. And how different was it, to take a security badge from the slovenly Major Katsuragi, who was tense and hurriedly looking at the screen, and then override the door's mechanisms with the woman's personal passcode?
Outside, there might have been spores of Angel origin. But it didn't matter to her; she was dead inside already. If they wished to feed on her still moving corpse, then she'd allow it.
As the door opened, she heard the screams of alert from within, but by then it was too late.
She was running on the metallic walkway, throwing caution to the wind as with a bellowing scream she roared to the very figure of the EVA standing ahead of her, with the gut-wrenching cry of someone who did not wish to be left alone ever again.
"You took everything from me, don't take him too! I need him! Do you hear me, mother!? Please!"
Her cries went unheard as the massive behemoth broke free from its restraints, the Dummy Plug doing its work as the crimson giant lunged forward, fist raised. With four arms to defend itself, but two enemy Evangelions attacking, the Angel had little hope.
Yet, with a mighty push, the crimson EVA ended up thrown back, straight against the walkway on which Asuka still stood. The orange-haired girl fell, a screaming leaving her lips as she plummeted into the void and the ground below.
"Mama!" Asuka screamed, "Mama!"
A giant hand grabbed hold of her. It was the hand of the EVA. It was the hand of her mother. The Evangelion Unit Zero-Two looked down at her. "M-mom?" Asuka whispered. "Please. I need your help. Please-" she sobbed, raucously. She thought she had outgrown the pain, the misery, the turmoil.
She had not.
The Evangelion's hand moved to its back, and as the dummy plug system violently ejected itself, Asuka stared at the LCL-filled container that she had spent years away from. She did not hesitate to jump in, the commands as familiar to her as the nightmare she had held.
"I'm sure-" Asuka whispered, "That your son-in-law is going to love us saving him."
"Langley!" the buzzing voice in the cockpit was from the Major, which sounded honestly angered by what she had done. "What you did-"
"I DON'T CARE!" Asuka snarled back. "I'm saving Shinji!"
"He might be dead already!" was the reply, "We've lost vitals-we've lost everything!"
"THEN I'LL GO TO HELL AND GET HIM BACK!" Asuka screamed louder still, her mother's fist rising up in a fist as she lunged forward. She had taken some self-defense classes in a variety of martial arts. To defend herself, and to ogle the men there. Also the women. She didn't judge. She didn't care.
It was a capoeira roundhouse kick which slammed into Bardiel's already wounded kick, and a Krav Maga hold which slammed its body face down on the ground. Her fingers slammed into the EVA's back, and as she pried the core off, ripping it with a squelching noise, she noticed how covered in a blue moss it was.
The moss seemed to breathe of a life of its own, and its filaments spread, violently so, towards her hand.
Her screen started to hue blue, and as Quatre's own Evangelion closed the distance, prog-knife in hand, Asuka realized she couldn't move.
She couldn't move as the prog knife impaled through her hand with a deadly sting of absolute pain, and shattered the container where Shinji was meant to be, safe from harm.
There was a loud, unsettling scream.
It was equal parts hers, and it also belonged to the Angel itself. Its last, spiteful heart-wrenching laughter which had nothing human left into it, but was wrong, utterly wrong. It was obscene in its madness, grating like nails dragging across chalkboards. It was a laughter that was a foreboding message of things to come, and which would not come lightly.
All that you cherish, I will take.
Not all is lost. Wake.
All that you are, I will unmake.
Not all is lost. Up.
Hateful Lilin. Monstrous Lilin. Deformed Lilin.
Not all is lost. Wake.
We shall reunite. You shall not.
Not all is lost. Up.
Weep then, Lilin. Suffer then, Lilin.
Not all is lost. Wake Up.
For we do not care about your tears. But I do. Wake up, Shinji.
- Location
- Australia, mate
Oh you [censored because OH GEEZ]!
Well, all I can do now is wait for the next update.
Please let our boy be alright...
Well, all I can do now is wait for the next update.
Please let our boy be alright...
Simon and Garfunkel have a long track record explaining this type of silence. To date, one of the best versions is this remix!
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
@shadenight123 Is this a typo? Isn't the other one suppossed to be 03, because you make mention of 01 snarling but not freeing itself. Also the fight is, from this point on, described as being against 03.
Also a correction. Shouldn't this be knee?
Also also a question does this mean our Rei is awake/present in the core of 01. Is that maybe why Quatre is so ... impersonal.
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Berix
Toa of Twilight
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Only just came across this story. Good timing, I think.
Excellent story so far, and I'm loving these most recent chapters.
Excellent story so far, and I'm loving these most recent chapters.
Oh shiet!
Is it 'The [Insert Eva Here] or just [Insert Eva Here]. You use both this chapter, almost interchangeably.
Also something something dialogue tags. You have a lot of beats that are punctuated as tags.
Also something something dialogue tags. You have a lot of beats that are punctuated as tags.
Zero-Three
Capitalize 'Angel'
Zero-Three. Also this is an example of 'The Eva' vs 'Eva'. I'd remove the 'The' here, as there is only one Evangelion Zero-Three (or One, or Two, or Zero).
Capitalize 'Angel'
Airborne
The first time you mention dummy plugs this chapter, it's both a proper noun and hyhpenated (Dummy-Plug). The second, it is no longer hyphenated. This is the third time, and now it's no longer capitalized.
Rolen von Keng
Sleeping Green Bear
- Location
- The Wilderness
It's alive!!! I have forgotten everything, back to the beginning I guess.
- Location
- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
Greetings!
Thank you for reminding me that I should totally get back to this story now that I've finally finished watching the latest movie in the EVA franchise. (No spoilers though).
Berix
Toa of Twilight
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Excellent news! I cannot wait to see where things go.
- Pronouns
- They/Them