Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction ❯ Shin Seiki Evangelion: War of the Apocalypse ❯ Birth of Fallen Angels ( Chapter 2 )

Shin Seiki Evangelion: The War of the Apocalypse

Written by otakufan

STORY SUMMERY: The Third Impact has come and gone and mankind still remains. NERV has reformed under the leadership of the Ikaris. But the death of Lilith is not the end, for the Angels were reborn as well, bearing the form of the Lilim. And through it all, SEELE plots its revenge. SEELE wages a war of attrition upon NERV, but, even if NERV wins, can the Fourth Impact, the Apocalypse that even SEELE fears, truly be avoided?

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Shin Seiki (Neon Genesis) Evangelion or any of the characters originally from it . . . yet. I hope to be changing that as soon as I become a multi-billionaire. Who knows, maybe I'll be able to build a real Eva o_O.

WARNING: Contains SPOILERS. Do NOT read this fanfic unless you have seen The End of Evangelion.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: If anyone knows the name of Toji's sister, please contact me so that I can get it right. The same goes for if I've misused any grammar (the bit of German at the end in particular).

CHAPTER II: Birth of Fallen Angels.

Ikari Shinji found himself running towards the still form of Eva Unit-01, faster than he had ever run before. He covered the half-kilometer between them in only a couple of minutes, but another person got to it first. Rising from the lake of LCL, right next to the Eva, was a familiar man dressed in a black suit. By the time Shinji had reached Unit-01, the man had climbed halfway to the creature's shoulder.

Shinji followed, climbing up the Eva's purple armor far more quickly than the man. Shinji was only a few meters below when the man pulled climbed up onto the shoulder and disappeared. Then, just as Shinji reached up to pull himself onto the right shoulder as well, the Eva shuddered, and Shinji lost his grip.

Time seemed to slow down as the armor on Unit-01's neck split to allow the entry plug to slide out of the beast's body. Shinji could feel nothing but the air, cursing himself as his hands reached out in vain. I survived the Angels, the invasion of headquarters, and the Third Impact just to die in a fall?! Shinji said to himself.

"GOD DAMN IT!!!"

Suddenly, Shinji jerked to a halt, a strong, gloved hand tightly gripping his wrist. Shinji looked up to see the strained face of the last man he would expect to save his life. With a groan, Ikari Gendo swung his son closer to the Eva's arm, where Shinji's hand found hold. After that, it only took a few moments for Shinji to join his father on Unit-01's shoulder.

Resting against the armored shoulder that housed Unit-01's progressive knife, Shinji and Gendo sat in silence. Shinji used the quiet to appraise the man. Something had changed him; his deep brown eyes, always so ruthless and cold, now looked merely tired. Gendo shifted a bit, staring off into space, causing the sleeve of his right arm to pull away from his wrist.

Shinji remained silent as he noted the loss of his father's right hand; all that was left was a healed-over stub. He knew what had taken it, but didn't care. Above all else, Shinji wanted to ask his father why he had orchestrated the Third Impact.

"I did it for your mother," said Gendo, apparently guessing at Shinji's thoughts. "I did everything for her. We had planned to betray SEELE together. You do know what SEELE is, don't you?"

"Iie," Shinji lied. He knew quite well what SEELE was, but he wanted to hear it from his father's mouth. Gendo smiled, an expression that Shinji had seen on his father's face fewer times than on the face of Ayanami Rei. Her total was at one. Now their tied, thought Shinji.

"SEELE is a worldwide committee of religious fools. Their only real concern is to destroy all living things and unite their souls into a single `perfect' being. That was the entire purpose of the Third Impact. Technically, NERV belongs to them as well, but I convinced them to give it to me. That was their mistake.

"As I said, your mother and I had planned to betray them from the beginning; to destroy the Angels and then destroy Adam and Lilith as well, which would have put the Apocalypse beyond SEELE's reach for all eternity. But your mother changed me and after we lost her to the Evangelion, I knew that I could never live without her. I say lost, but I learned not long afterward that it had been her plan from the beginning. I had never expected to lose her, but I knew that it the perfect opportunity for her. With your mother as a part of Unit-01, she could control it far better than any pilot could ever hope to, and thus make our plans flawless.

"But then I changed the plans. By merging myself with Adam," Gendo said, holding up his right arm to show the stub, "and using a controlled medium to merge with Lilith," he gestured towards the Angelic corpse, which still looked like Ayanami Rei, "I thought I could take control of the Third Impact. I could save mankind as we had intended, but ensure that Yui and I would be eternally united as the Apocalypse would have done." A weak grin spread across his face. "And this is the result. How utterly foolish I was."

"Ayanami betrayed you," said Shinji, stating it as fact.

"Iie, I betrayed her. I cloned her from Yui's blood, back when you were still in the womb. I used SEELE's resources to trap the soul of Lilith within her. I treated her worse than I ever did you, and God knows how I've treated you. I used her as a tool, as a temporary replacement for Yui's presence. She had every reason to hate me and, by bringing you and the Second Child here, I showed her just how badly I had treated her. So, in the end, when I was to become Go through her, she rejected me, taking my hand, and with it Adam, to someone she believed worthy to decide mankind's fate, and leaving me to face my sins.

"Whomever Rei chose, he has shown me mercy that I do not deserve."

Shinji remained quiet, lowering his head to keep his father from knowing that Rei had come to him.

"I'm sorry, Shinji," said Gendo, catching his son off guard.

"For what?" asked Shinji a little too quickly. "The Angels are all dead. We survived the Third Impact. The only Eva left is Unit-01. It's all over."

Gendo lowered his head in silence. Suddenly, an unwanted thought leapt into Shinji's head.

What if . . . it isn't?

* * *

Sohryu Asuka Langley, Horaki Hikari, Aida Kensuke, and Suzuhara Toji had just reached the shore when the Evangelion had fallen from the sky. Both Toji and Asuka had recovered from the shock when Unit-01 had knelt and become dormant. Kensuke took a minute or two longer to recover, then went searching for something to build a fire. Hikari however, having never seen the Evangelion before, stood in shock and fear for a full five minutes before Asuka managed to bring her back to reality.

"Asuka-chan . . ." said Hikari, her eyes wide. "What the hell is that?"

"That, Hikari-chan," replied Asuka, "is Eva Unit-01."

"The one Ikari-kun pilots?"

"Hai."

Hikari stared at the Eva with a mixture of fear and awe. Asuka sighed and turned away to help Toji, who was busy propping the young girl that he had been carrying against a rock. Now on dry land, Asuka could get a good look at her. The girl was young, about seven or eight years old and had shoulder length brown hair. She was wearing what looked like a hospital gown and bandages were wrapped carefully around her forehead. She was sleeping deeply.

"So, Suzuhara, who's the girl?" asked Asuka. "She's a little bit young for you, don't you think?"

Toji glared at Asuka for a moment, then replied, "For your information, Sohryu, she happens to be my sister."

"Oh . . . sorry," said Asuka, quietly. "I didn't know you had a sister. What's her name?"

"Izumi."

"Why's her head all wrapped up?"

"She was injured in an accident a few months back. It's taken a long time to heal."

"Well, what happened?"

At this, Toji paused for a moment, and then, choosing his words carefully, he said, "She was crushed under some debris when Unit-01 went berserk the first time Shinji piloted it."

"What?!"

"It wasn't his fault," said Toji quickly, "he couldn't control it, but I punched him anyway. Twice. And then, he saved my life. That's why we're friends."

Asuka could tell that Toji wasn't going to say anything more on the matter. She turned away and started to walk back to Hikari.

So that's why, she said to herself. That's why Shinji feels unworthy of Toji's friendship.

* * *

Shinji and Gendo sat in silence for a minute or two before Gendo spoke again.

"I am sorry, Shinji," he said, "for not acting like a father to you. That sin alone is heavier that all the others I've committed." Gendo stood to his feet and walked across Unit-01's shoulder to the still-steaming entry plug jutting out of the Eva's neck. As he got there, he stopped and said, "Oh, damn. I nearly forgot." Then he turned back to Shinji and smiled. One up on Rei, Shinji thought.

"Would you mind giving me a hand, Shinji? If my theories are right, there is someone in here that I want you to meet."

"Hai," said Shinji as he climbed to his feet. Gendo forced one of the emergency hatch's two interlocking levers up with his hand, just as Shinji pulled on the other.

"Counterclockwise, on three," said Gendo, his voice taking on the air of authority, though none of the coldness it once possessed. "One . . . two . . ."

"Three!!" they said together, straining to turn the levers against the pressurized LCL within the plug. After a moment, the levers clicked into place and thin streams of LCL jetted from the frame of the hatch. Shinji and Gendo braced themselves, and then lifted the hatch out of the frame, LCL flooding out, over them, and down Unit-01's body to join the lake below.

When the LCL flow had slowed to a trickle, Gendo climbed into the plug, followed by Shinji a moment later. Strangely, Shinji did not feel in the least bit surprised when he discovered a young woman, maybe a year or two younger than Misato, laying asleep in the pilot seat. She was quite beautiful, looking like an older Ayanami Rei with brown hair, and without Rei's almost unnaturally pale skin. Despite having not seen her since he was three, Shinji recognized her instantly.

Gendo removed his coat and draped it over the naked form of Ikari Yui. With a bit of work, he clasped the coat shut behind her back, and then lifted his wife into his arms, her head resting against his shoulder.

"Shinji, I would like you to meet your mother," said Gendo, a slight tear coming to his eye. "I hate to ask this of you, Shinji, but I cannot climb down with your mother like this, so . . . would you mind setting us down?"

"Hai," Shinji said, smiling. After Gendo had stepped out of the entry plug, Shinji closed and sealed the emergency hatch, then sat down in the familiar pilot seat and pushed down a small lever. The entry plug quickly filled with LCL, and then the Eva shuddered as the plug twisted back into Unit-01's neck. Shinji reached into his pocket, but was unable to find his neural interface headset.

"Damn it," he said as he searched, a moment before realizing that he was already wearing it, had been wearing it in fact since the Third Impact. Shinji reached to his forehead and turned the device on, then began the startup sequence.

Various lights and patterns flashed before Shinji's eyes as his mind linked to Unit-01's. Strangely, the process felt easier than usual. After a moment, the lights faded and the view screens on the entry plug's walls lit up with the input from the Eva's eyes. Shinji tested Unit-01's arm. He was surprised at how easily it moved, far more smoothly than it had ever done before. With less than a thought, Shinji raised Unit-01's left hand to its shoulder, feeling a small weight press into his palm as his parents moved into the Eva's.

With a smile, Shinji lowered the arm to the ground. After his father had climbed out, Shinji stood up to the Eva's full height, well over a hundred meters, and pulled the Lance of Longinus from the ground. Then, he started towards a small campfire about a kilometer away, where he saw four, no five, small figures sitting.

* * *

Toji looked up as Eva Unit-01 began to move. Reflexively, he touched his right arm, reminding himself that it was still there, though he cursed himself for it a moment later. The last time he had seen Shinji's Evangelion in action, he had been sitting inside Unit-03, feeling everything, but not in control, as Unit-01 had torn it apart.

He did not blame Shinji. Misato had visited Toji in the hospital to officially relieve him of his duties as the Fourth Child, and had said that the Eva hadn't been at Shinji's control. Toji believed the woman. He had seen Shinji in battle before and knew that Shinji would never have attacked as viciously as Unit-01 had that day.

While Toji was lost in his thoughts, Unit-01 had closed the distance and, with a flash, jammed the lance it carried deep into the earth. As the Eva kneeled, only a couple of hundred meters away, Toji climbed to his feet and started towards it.

What Shinji needs now, Toji said to himself, is a friend.

* * *

An hour later, Shinji sat alone beneath Unit-01. He was still recovering from the shock of seeing Toji's lost limbs restored, though it was almost gone. Everyone had sat down at Kensuke's campfire and had a, mostly, friendly conversation on nothing in particular. Shinji had been introduced to Toji's younger sister, Suzuhara Izumi, who had just woken up, her head injury simply gone as though she had never been hurt.

Gendo had arrived a few moments later, Yui still sleeping in his arms. As expected, he wasn't particularly social and opted to find a more secluded place to sit with his wife and wait.

Over the past half-hour or so, the beach had slowly begun to fill up with people. A few Shinji knew, most he didn't. They had helped several people out of the lake, but now most were coming out awake, so Shinji had decided to sit down and clear his thoughts.

So, here he was, watching the world around him return to life. Shinji probably would have stayed there for a while longer, had he not just spotted a familiar red jacket floating in the LCL. After a moment, he spotted the still form of Major Katsuragi Misato floating nearby.

Quickly, Shinji climbed to his feet and, a minute or two later, pulled Misato onto the shore.

"Shinji-kun," she said weakly, "I know that I said we would . . ."

"Don't worry about it, Misato-san," Shinji interrupted as another memory was pulled to his mind.

~ ~ ~

Shinji and Misato stood in a deserted corridor, next to a small service elevator. Misato removed the small silver cross she wore around her neck and placed it into Shinji's hands.

"It's a promise," she said. Then, she pinned Shinji against the wall and pressed her lips to his. She held there for what seemed like an eternity, then softly released and smiled.

"That was a grown-up kiss, Shinji-kun," she said. "We'll do the rest when you get back."

With that, Misato shoved Shinji into the elevator and closed the grate. As, the elevator began to rise, Shinji saw Misato clutch her left shoulder. She slumped against the wall, then slid down to the floor, leaving a trail of blood on the wall's otherwise clean surface.

And then, she was gone.

~ ~ ~

Shinji smiled faintly. That had been the second time he had ever been kissed. Not that it mattered. Shinji had recognized, even then, that Misato was dying. The kiss was just her final effort to get him to the Eva. She had never intended to fulfill her promise, but this didn't anger Shinji in the least. He had never intended to accept the offer.

Shinji glanced to the side and caught a sight of Toji pulling a familiar black-haired man from the lake.

"Besides," he said, slipping the cross back around her neck, "I think Toji's found an old friend of yours."

In an instant, Misato's strength returned. Her head snapped up and her eyes widened as she saw the man stand to his feet.

"K . . . Kaji?!"

* * *

Kaji Ryoji stood to his feet, his muscles sore, but otherwise fine, considering that he had been dead for a week. While he wasn't entirely sure where he was, the bleak landscape unfamiliar to his eyes, something told him he was close to Tokyo-3. The boy who had pulled him from the LCL seemed familiar to him somehow, but, since the boy had wandered off, he couldn't place from where.

"KAJI!!" yelled Misato's familiar voice. Kaji turned to see his love running towards him.

For a moment, as Misato closed the distance, time seemed to slow down. A wide smile on his face, Kaji spread his arms to catch and embrace the woman, but never got the chance. An instant too late, Kaji noticed the look on Misato's face.

Then, before his face could even change expressions, Misato's fist made contact with Kaji's jaw. The force of the punch knocked Kaji off his feet and he hit the ground hard.

"GOD DAMN YOU, KAJI RYOJI, YOU SELFISH BASTARD!!!" yelled Misato. "THAT GOD-DAMNED MESSAGE OF YOURS MADE ME THINK YOU WERE DEAD!!!!"

As soon as Misato had finished yelling, she collapsed on top of the groaning Kaji and began crying into his shoulder.

"I guess that means you missed me," he said. An instant later, Kaji's face stung painfully, the red outline of Misato's hand throbbing on his cheek. Wincing, Kaji smiled.

"Yeah," he said, softly, "I missed you, too."

* * *

Shinji walked quietly back to the Eva, but, when he got there, he found that he was not alone. Sitting quietly beneath Unit-01 was Asuka.

"Hey, Asuka," Shinji said as the red-haired girl looked up. "Where's Hikari-chan?"

"She ran off to find Toji," Asuka replied as Shinji sat down next to her.

"Okay . . . I thought you'd like to know, Kaji-san's back."

"Yeah, I know. I heard Misato screaming at him from here. But I'm not interested in Kaji-sama anymore. He's in love with Misato, and I can't compete with her. I've lost him."

"Actually, Asuka," said Shinji, "I don't think you ever had him to begin with."

Asuka fell silent for a moment, giving Shinji the distinct impression that he was about to be beaten into the ground, but Asuka's reply a moment later sounded far from angry. It sounded sad.

"Yeah, I know," she said quietly, a failed attempt at a smile on her face.

In a rare moment of clarity, Shinji wrapped his arm around Asuka's shoulders and held her close. They sat like this for nearly a minute, neither one wanting to move, until Hikari and Toji appeared. As soon as Shinji saw them, he braced himself. He felt, rather than saw, Asuka's face become a mask of mixed surprise and anger, and, an instant later, Asuka released a well-rehearsed scream.

"AAAHHHHHH!!! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?! STOP TOUCHING ME!!! BAKA!! HENTAI!! PERVERT!!"

Asuka, strangely enough, did not hit Shinji very hard; at least, not as hard as she usually did. Despite this, Asuka's fist still made contact. Painfully. After three or four sharp whacks to the head and one slap across the face, Asuka stood up and joined Hikari and Toji as they walked down to the campfire.

Shinji carefully pulled himself out of the ground just as Kensuke walked by, his arms filled with wood and debris to feed the fire.

"What the hell did you do, Ikari?" he asked before moving on.

A few moments later, Shinji was alone again.

* * *

Ayanami Rei fell quickly through the sky. She looked up and saw an enormous black sphere floating high above her in orbit around the Earth, like a small, obsidian moon. As she looked back down, she caught sight of another person falling with her.

It was a boy, maybe a year older then she was, with silver-gray hair and blood-red eyes, much like her own. Like her, he wore no clothes, and both seemed to glow with a pale light. Rei could only think of one word that could describe him.

He is beautiful, Rei said to herself, blushing slightly as she realized what that meant. She had never thought that about anyone before.

Suddenly, the boy smiled and looked over at her.

"Hello again, Rei," he said.

"Do I know you?" she replied, softly.

"That's right, we have never met. My name is Tabris."

"You're the seventeenth Angel?!"

"I was, but now I am human. As are you."

"I have always been human."

"Iie. You were an Angel, the same as I. You died before you could realize this, but your successor fulfilled Commander Ikari's plans."

"My successor?"

"You are the second Ayanami Rei, are you not?"

"Hai."

"It was the third who bonded with Lilith and revived us. By the way, call me Nagisa Kaoru."

"You just said your name was Tabris."

"It is, but I've never really liked that name."

Rei gasped and a giggle forced itself from her throat. Kaoru gave a small laugh as well. As they hit the cloud layer, both found themselves laughing loudly.

Strange, Rei thought as she tried to suppress her giggles, I've never found anyone this funny before. I can't even remember ever laughing before.

Instinctively, Rei spread her AT Field beneath her, slowing her fall. Kaoru did the same. At some point, their hands met and joined. They broke through the clouds above a lake of pale yellow fluid. After a couple of minutes, they landed.

It felt strange. Instead of sinking into the liquid, LCL, Rei and Kaoru's feet touched the surface and held there as if the liquid were solid ground. Rei and Kaoru's eyes locked and a smile came to Kaoru's face.

Then, straining because the expression was unfamiliar to her, Rei smiled as well.

* * *

Shinji watched as the crowd on the beach grew rapidly. He caught brief glimpses of people he knew. Vice-Commander Fuyutsuki. Lieutenants Aoba, Hyuga, and Ibuki. Classmates from Room 2-A. His teacher.

As he watched a classmate fade into the crowd, Shinji's eyes noticed a faint spot of white light in the center of the LCL lake. Without thinking, Shinji jumped to his feet and made his way to the shoreline.

About halfway through the crowd, however, something else caught his attention. Walking silently were two pale white figures, both unclothed and, apparently, unnoticed by the crowd surrounding them. Shinji recognized both of them instantly. One of them was Ayanami Rei, but the other was a boy that Shinji knew could not be real.

The boy looked up at Shinji with ice blue eyes and Shinji gasped. Aside from the eyes, he was looking at a mirror of himself. A moment later, Rei, or what he had thought was Rei, caught his gaze as well. Her eyes were also ice blue. The boy smiled, and then the pair faded into the crowd and were gone.

A moment later, Shinji found himself at the lakeside and, suddenly remembering what he was doing, stared out into the lake to find one . . . no two figures walking across the surface of the lake. Even from the distance, Shinji could see the blood-red color of their eyes.

"Excuse me!" Shinji yelled out. "Does anyone have a spare coat? There's a couple of people out there!"

Shinji was surprised at how quickly people responded. Within a minute, he had a pair of long coats and the shirt of an enormous, and proud, foreign man who spoke with an American accent. Carrying the clothes, Shinji waded into the LCL and began to swim out to meet the pair. Despite already knowing who they were, the only two people he had ever known to have red eyes, Shinji could not help but feel surprised when the forms of Ayanami Rei and Nagisa Kaoru came into focus, since both had been killed, Kaoru by Shinji's own hands.

"Rei! Kaoru!" Shinji yelled, as the two finally came close enough to see him. Both albinos looked down at Shinji and then gasped, for whatever had been keeping them above the surface of the LCL was now gone, and plunged into the lake.

Kaoru came up laughing and even Rei seemed somewhat amused.

"Here . . . put these on," Shinji said as he tossed the shirt and coats to the pair. Rei caught the overly large shirt and pulled it over her shoulders, forcing it through the LCL to cover her to the knees. Kaoru picked up the larger of the two coats, pulled it around his body, and clasped it together. When no one touched the other coat, Shinji pulled it over his shoulder and began to lead the way back to shore.

"Hey, Kaoru?" Shinji asked. "How is it that you and Rei are alive?"

With a smile, Kaoru answered, "We Angels are, even now, falling from grace to become of the Lilim."

Expectedly, Shinji did not understand and, after a laugh, Kaoru explained more clearly.

"All the Angels born of Adam are returning with human bodies."

"Oh, what about the Evas?" Shinji asked.

"The Evangelions are made in the form of Adam, but were born of Lilith, so they will return as they were."

"Oh . . ." Shinji mumbled. Having never been given an acceptable answer to his questions before, Shinji fully intended to ask his father, and if that failed, his mother, to explain to him what exactly he had been doing for the past five months.

* * *

Asuka sat at the campfire with Hikari, Toji, Kensuke, and several other people for nearly half an hour, conversing quietly. When everyone seemed to be looking in a different direction, Asuka chanced a look back at Unit-01, only to see that Shinji was nowhere in sight.

Damn it, she said to herself, where did that baka go now?

Asuka! screamed a voice from the depths of her mind.

Suddenly, Asuka felt the ground beneath her quiver. She stood to her feet and ran to the shoreline, followed by Toji, Kensuke, and Hikari. Crawling from the LCL was Shinji, followed by Rei and a silver haired boy that Asuka didn't recognize.

The ground gave another, much stronger quiver and far out in the lake, an enormous figure exploded out of the LCL. The creature roared loudly as it pulled two other figures out with it and began to move swiftly to the shore, kicking up a cloud-like mist of LCL around it.

As it closed on the shore, the beast threw one of the still creatures in its hands to the ground. Amazingly, everyone on the shore managed to get out of the way before the gray skinned humanoid crashed onto the shore. Although it didn't have its armor, Asuka recognized Unit-00 instantly, its single eye a dead giveaway.

With a roar, the other figure landed on the shore as well, the shattered black armor on its face identifying it as Unit-03. Asuka turned back to the figure still in the lake. The mist had finally cleared and she could see the creature. All over its body were the remnants of shattered crimson armor, mixed with blue colored blood. Asuka looked at the face of her Eva and felt the gaze of all four of the creature's eyes shift to her as well.

Auf Wiedersehen, Asuka, said the voice.

Asuka smiled, tears welling uninhibited in her eyes, and said, "Auf Wiedersehen, Mutti."

Then, Unit-02 kneeled down and went still.