Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction ❯ A Debt Repaid ❯ A Debt Repaid ( Prologue )

Neon Genesis Evangelion

A Debt Repaid

By: Lord Deathscythe

Disclaimer

I do not now, have ever, or will ever own Neon Genesis Evangelion. Don't sue

me.

As a young girl laid lifeless in a hospital bed, her red hair spread out from

her, a young boy entered and sat next to her. His dark blue eyes almost hollow

from the pain he felt just looking at her. Shinji had just defeated the 17th

angel, Kaoru Nagisa, his friend. He had had to crush the small boy in the hands

of Unit-01 to save humanity, but he felt as if his soul had been taken from him.

As he gazed upon Asuka, his fellow pilot and roommate, he felt as if, even

though he had saved Earth from the angels, he had fail to save her.

"What good is protecting and saving humanity when I can't even save one person.

Someone I love. I couldn't save Asuka, and I had to murder Kaoru ." Shinji said

To himself. "Asuka, please wake up. I never thought I'd miss your slaps or your

insults, but now I'd give anything just to feel the sting of your hand." Shinji

squeezed the girls hand and stayed with her, hoping for some sign of life from

what used to be the fiery and determined young girl. But now she was just a

shell, a memory of all the pain he had endured. And for what, he had lost

everything he had since coming to Tokyo-3. Misato was never around anymore,

hunting the secrets of Nerv in a blind attempt at revenge towards the

organization she held responsible for hurting Shinji and Asuka. Rei wasn't

even Rei anymore, just a clone or Rei, which was much harder to take now that he

knew she was also a clone of his mother. Toji, Kensuke, and Hikari had left

Tokyo-3 after Unit-00 destroyed most of it against the 16th angel.

Shinji Ikari felt he had lost everyone, and could only hope for the others to

come out of this nightmare in as few pieces as possible. He kept gazing at

Asuka, softly crying until he fell asleep in the chair next to her.

Asuka, while completely silent to the outside world, was lost in depths of her

mind. She was wrapped in darkness, not wanting to come back. She felt she was

worthless, a failure, ugly. She curled up into a ball in the corners of her soul

and wept. "I'm worthless, I can't pilot, I can't do anything" was all she could

say to herself. Suddenly another voice intruded on her self-imposed prison from

reality. "You're not worthless my dear Miss Langley" said a calm voice from the

darkness.

"Who's there? Get away from me." She shouted. Asuka did not want anyone to see

what she had become. "I'm here to help you. I'm a friend. I won't harm you,

don't be afraid." Said the voice. From the Darkness walked a small boy, about

her age wearing a white shirt and black slacks, similar to Shinji's. He had

gray, unruly hair and deep red eyes. To Asuka he almost looked like a male

version of Rei. Unlike the first child however, he displayed emotions of concern

and friendship towards her. "Who are you?" Asuka asked timidly. She was still

sizing the boy up, and wondered how he had gotten here.

"My name is Kaoru Nagisa, I'm a friend of Shinji's"

"How can you be in my mind if you're a friend of Shinji?" she asked, to stunned

by the statement to care that before her another presence was entering her mind.

"For that you will need a little background information Asuka, may I call you

Asuka."

Asuka merely nodded, to weak from all the pain and sorrow of being mind raped by

The fifteenth to fight anymore.

"This may disturb you to know but I am an angel, the seventeenth to be precise.

My true name is Tabris."

Hearing that this young boy was an angel reignited a fire in her. The angels had

done this to her and seemed to be coming to gloat. "Get out of my head you

bastard, your kind did this to me!" she screamed.

"I know and that is why I came. To put right what has been done to you. I owe

Shinji that much for what I did to him."

"What did you do to him you little bastard? Did you screw with his mind too? Did

you hurt him like you did me and now your coming to admire your handiwork?"

Kauro took her anger and accusation with a placid patience. He knew she was hurt

And took things very carefully.

"I did hurt him, I admit that. But I am not pleased with what has happened to

you both. You have been put through much you entire lives and I hope to give you

some peace in return. You did not deserve these things, you did not deserve to

feel all this pain. That is why I am here, to try to at least right one of the

many wrongs towards you both."

"You said you owed Shinji, what did you mean by that?"

"Well you see he was my friend. A very good friend at that, I understood him

better then anyone else had before. I comforted him when he was dealing with his

pain, weeping over losing everyone he cared for, especially you I might add. I

even told him that I loved him. And for all his friendship I repaid him with

betrayal. I used Unit-02 to get to the very heart of Nerv to get to my goal. And

upon realizing that it would destroy humanity if I did, I surrendered to Shinji.

I made him kill me in the giant hands of his Eva"

Asuka was stunned, this angel had confessed to her all these things. The worst

of all was his betrayal of Shinji. She may of hid her feelings from him, but

what Kaoru had just told her was unforgivable. She knew Shinji would rather die

then take another persons life, especially that of a dear friend. Even if that

friend was the enemy.

"How could you do that to him, he was feeling bad enough from everything that

happened! To have to kill his best friend must of completely destroyed him! Do

you know what this means? He might just get depressed enough to kill himself!"

"I know, which is why I am here. I owe a great debt to Shinji Ikari, and I

intend to repay him, at least in part."

"Then why are you here? I can't do anything to help. I'm useless, a failure, he

could never want to be near me after they way I've treated him."

"That's where your wrong. If anything you are the only one who can save him now.

He is alone now, lost. The only thing he can do now is go through the motions of

living. Let me show you something I saw in his mind before I came here."

In a flash she saw a scene of her and Shinji. It was the just as he jumped into

the volcano after the 8th angel to save her.

"I won't let her die, I won't. I have to save her."

Then they were back in the same dark room. Asuka was digesting what she saw.

Shinji had jumped in that volcano to save her, regardless of the danger to

himself, orders be damned.

"I always thought he was following orders that time. He did that for me?"

"Yes, we both know that he would do anything to save another before himself.

Misato gave him a good chewing out for that afterwards. He had disobeyed orders

after all and as his commanding officer she had to make sure he understood that.

Afterwards she told him she was proud of him for doing it. Misato hadn't wanted

to give the order for Unit-01 to stay put but she had no choice. It's one of

those decisions one has to make in time of war. Like Shinji she would go to hell

and back to save you, him, anyone from this nightmare you've all been through."

Asuka was stunned, she had always felt he was a wimp, a coward, that his refusal

to stand up for himself made him no better then Rei. She was the most

unemotional doll she had ever seen in her life.

"But why? I hurt him so badly. Why does he still want to be around me? And why

didn't he help me when I needed him during the 15th? I had to be saved by that

bitch Rei."

"It wasn't his choice I assure you. Had he been able to rest control of Unit-01

from his father, he would of climbed his way to the surface and take the brunt

of the attack himself. But when your Eva is in cryostasis and the person holding

the leash cares more for it then the people under his command, what you gonna

do?"

"Good point." Asuka agreed. She knew what a cold hearted bastard the Commander

was, and that was just to his subordinates. He was even colder, monstrously cold

to the one person he shouldn't of been, his own son.

"But still, Why should I go back? My soul is so dirty, wouldn't he be better off

without me? I've caused him nothing but pain, I pushed him away when he wanted

to help me. I insulted him when he did nothing but care for me. Why then would

he want me back?" She confessed to Kaoru . She couldn't believe anyone would want

her that her soul was too dirty and dark for anyone to want to be around.

"This may come as a surprise to you, but he is in love with you. I know you

don't think he could but he does. I think he has ever since you two first met on

the 'Over the Rainbow'. Why do you think he never once retaliated against you."

With this said Kaoru sat down next to Asuka and pulled his knees up to his chest

and sat with a calm demeanor. "His friends have bugged him about it for all this

time, wondering the same thing you have. How can he be in love with her? How can

he take all the abuse? How can he even think of liking a bitch like her? But he

does, for no other reason except for that. He loves you because you're a bitch,

because of the abuse. He loves you for being you. He just never said anything

because he, like yourself were afraid of what it would mean. That you would

abandon him like all the other people he loved in his life. His mother was

stripped from him while he watched, his father just plain threw him away until

he could use him. He was afraid you would do the same, and you would have

because where he runs from others to escape the pain, you drive them from you.

You and he are the same in that you avoid the pain by being alone, but the

methods are different. But by being alone, by keeping others from getting too

close to you, you feel another pain, the pain of loneliness. That's the pain

he's going through right now. Made a hundred times greater because of me and

what I did to him."

As Asuka absorbed all this, she knew that this angel was right. How else could

she explain Shinji's acts towards her. He had never hurt her, never attacked her

even though he had reason to. The only way he could would be that he loved her.

"But I can't, if I love him, if I let him get close he'll be taken from me. Even

if it's the last thing he wants, I'll lose him like everyone else."

"No, you may lose him in body. He may die in battle, die from an accident, or

even taken by force by his father. But he would never leave you truly. Hid

spirit, his soul would be with you always, even when his body can't. And if you

go back to him, to the world, Shinji Ikari will be strong enough to stay. So

will you, together there is nothing you two lillim can't do. If you stay here,

you both will die. You in this hospital bed, and him, if not by his own hand or

in battle, will lose his soul to grief and sorrow. Go to him, love him, and be

loved by him. You can save each other from the darkness. That is the most

important victory you could ever win. All you successes and failures in Eva pail

in comparison to saving one life, the life of the one you love."

Asuka took all this in, and knew it was right. She had fought to save all of

humanity, but what did that matter if she did nothing to save one boy. The boy

who loved her for no reason other then she was her, and that she loved for the

same reason. She had made her choice now, to fight for him and save him from the

darkness that had almost won over her.

"Thank you, for an angel your not that bad a guy."

"If anything I should thank you. I am the angel of free will, and of my own free

will betrayed a friend. This will partly repay a debt that can never truly be

repaid, and it will make you both stronger then you ever thought possible. I'll

lead you back now. Take my hand, and don't be afraid."

With that, Asuka took the outreached had of Kaoru Nagisa, the 17th angel know as

Tabris, and walked with him to the light.

Shinji had awakened from his troubled sleep after, in his dreams heard Kaoru 's

voice say to him "I owe you a great debt, one which I can never fully repay to

you. I hope this will help you and partly make up for what I have done. Live,

Shinji Ikari, and know that you are never alone. Wake up now, someone is waiting

for you."

After hearing the voice of his friend say that, he awoke just before Asuka did.

He pondered the meaning of the words of his friend that he had heard in his

dream. "What did he mean by a debt that can never fully be repaid?" Shinji

thought. Just as he was becoming fully awake, he saw Asuka stir. He rushed to

her side and took her hand. Then her eyes opened and looked into his, the fire

back in full force. They looked at eachother, and Shinji began to cry again,

this time in joy, for the girl he loved was returning to him.

"Shinji, you look terrible." Asuka said weakly. She had been in this coma for

almost two weeks and needed to get her strength back.

"You've looked better yourself." He said through the tears, he now knew what

Kaoru had meant. After almost losing her forever, he made a decision. One he

would never regret even if she didn't feel the same.

"Asuka, I love you." He finally said. After all this pain, saying those three

words made him feel finally and completely happy.

Asuka looked at him and smiled a small smile. "I love you too, Baka Shinji."

At that he gave a weak chuckle, his Asuka had been returned. He held her close,

afraid to let go, as she did the same. They both heard Kaoru 's voice in their

minds. "Love each other, and be loved by each other. That is the greatest

victory you will ever achieve."

Authors notes

Hope you liked that, My take on Tabris is that even though he would betray

Shinji, he would try to make up for it. After all what are friends for? Some may

be pissed because of Asuka's portrayal in this fic. So what? I believe that

after she went into that coma, she was broken and scared. She would have been

weakened to the point of not wanting to fight anymore, to curl up and die if you

will. And Shinji, well how hard is it to do a depressed, not quite but almost

suicidal person like him. He has plenty of reason to be that way. Wouldn't you

want to put a bullet in your head if you went through what he had? God knows I

would. Thank the Maker we don't have to and have something like Evangelion to

show us the way. I love a series that makes you look at yourself and ask what

would you do in that situation.

In the words of the immortal Porky Pig "That's All Folk's"

Lord Deathscythe

E-mail: cwsmith1@qwest.net

Website: www.geocities.com/cursed5

ICQ#: 74629221