In
the first time
The
Makers created the seeds, and sent them forth
Raining
life down upon this galaxy.
Billions
of years passed
And
two seeds, a White Seed and Black Seed,
Came
to this world. With their arrival, the Moon was created, the ever
present eye looking down at night. And the seeds of life began to
stir.
But
pain and bloodshed followed in its wake. Life would bloom, reach its
heights, and then the Progenitors would awaken to war with each
other.
And
reduce it all to ash.
But
now is the end time.
The
Progenitors have become weak, and the Progeny strong.
The
stage is set and the players have taken their place.
And
the cycle is now set
To
end.
The
words echo through the mass of humanity as they move, the crowd
haloed by the ring of light hovering over them. Rio De Janeiro comes
in the distance. The Children of Armisael, his worshippers, sing
hymns as they walk, ever protected by the being they have come to
worship as a god.
For
the time has come.
-
-
Chapter
99: In the Name of the White Moon
"Start
entry sequence. Initiating LCL Ionization. Plug depth stable at
1.29."
The
lights in the entry plug flicker on, and Shinji coughs out an air
bubble as he looks around to find the walls all solid metal. In the
corner of his eye, a screen folds out, showing Mana, clad in her
beige NERV uniform, leaning over the camera.
"Comfy?"
"Pretty
much," he says, "I'm not actually using Uri's plug, am I?"
"Nope.
This is one of the spares. Your normal entry plug is still in the
Mark-01, for just in case. We're going to be testing Uri in Go-kun
after this."
"Okay.
Say, Mana? What happens if I get a better score than Uri in Zwei?"
"I
imagine he kills you, because you've managed to surpass him in yet
another thing due to the universe being unfair."
He
cocks an eyebrow.
"Kidding.
We doubt that's going to happen, but we're just seeing who can pilot
what. Brass says you're too good a pilot to be sidelined, so they
want you piloting something."
"Got
it," he says, and sighs, hands rolling around the butterfly
controls. He feels the pulling at the back of his head, a familiar
sensation. Perhaps even welcomed. How messed up has his life gotten
when something summed up as 'supergluing his soul to a 60 meter tall
cyborg' is a welcome thing, he asks himself.
"Third
stage reached. Synchonization start."
At
the pronouncement from Maya, the plug walls turn transparent. The
lights on the A-10 connectors glow, as his own eyes begin to outline
themselves in blue.
"Second
Child Recognized. Synchronization at 68%. Evangelio Unit-02 has
activated."
"Wait,"
he says, "Second child? I thought I was the thir-"
"MASTER!"
The
entry plug shakes with the delighted pronouncement. The piloting
seat tilts as Zwei's head rises, four eyes glowing dimly over the
Cage.
"Uh...Zwei?
I'm not Asuka. I'm Shinji. We've met before-"
"MASTER!"
"Zwei...I'm...I'm
not Asuka. Seriously. Mana, is something wrong with Zwei's
programming or something?"
"SMELLS
LIKE MASTER!"
Shinji's
shoulders slump. Well, in all honesty, he did expect something like
this at some point. He got shit from his mother, from Asuka's
brother, and more. So, eventually, he had to get shit from her pet
Evangelion.
"Okay,"
Shinji says, "Zwei, when a boy and a girl really like each
other..."
"Is
he giving the sex talk to another Evangelion?" Misato asks,
shaking her head as they listen to Shinji over the speakers.
Mana
nods, failing to mask the grin on her face.
"Y'know,"
she says, "If piloting doesn't work out, he's got a future as
Evangelion therapist."
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Man, for some reason that amuses me intensely. Poor Asuka when she finds out about this :Lol
"I
can understand that you don't trust us completely, considering that
this facility used to be run by Lorenz Kihl. And besides which, it's
never wise to trust Makinami. But still, you have to consider that I
asked you to come here."
The
scruffy man in the ponytail scratches the back of his head as the
elevator continues its transit downward. This is only the latest
part of the speech, the riot act, that has been read to him since he
woke up.
"Well,
in all honesty," Kaji says, "It was Dr. Ikari who asked me to
come here. But I see what you're saying."
Kei
turns back to him, her eyelids dropping ever so slightly. It is a
near perfect imitation of Dr. Ikari when she glares, something he's
been on the receiving end, and only helps to cement the idea is that
Kei is very much what Yui may have been like when she was 16.
"Message
received," Kaji says, "Anyway, you've got a point. No going
behind the boss's back. So, what do we know?"
"From
the notes I recovered, my mother was the original target," Kei
responds, a small twitch in her brow upon the pronouncement, "The
blast would have killed her instantly. I had my AT Field up just in
time, however, which saved me."
"Right.
So we just need to figure out who planted it then, right?"
"Exactly.
I need to see if this is a larger conspiracy," Kei says, "And if
any of the NERV-Berlin staff are in on it. Lorenz Kihl is dead.
Things seem to work smoother, that way."
The
door opens with a ding,
opening to reveal the metal hallway several hundred meters below the
surface. Reaching into her lab coat, Kei removes a key card, handing
it to Kaji.
"This
is a copy of my keycard, and the MAGI has been updated to allow you
access," she says, "Report back to me around dinner time and tell
me what you find."
He
nods, palming the card, walking out of the elevator and bowing. The
doors close, the elevator speeding up, and Kaji turns...just as a
blue shape floats by, and the air turns colder, for a second. And
shaking it off, he begins walking down the hall.
"Okay...so
you need authorization form 1701-89-NX-091-B."
"'Kay."
"Then
you need to make copies of it, and have them sign on page 3, 7, 11,
14, 15 and 29."
"'Kay."
"Then
make copies of the signatures and scan them."
"'Kay."
The
doors to the office open, and Hyuga Makoto looks up from the open
filing cabinets littering Katsuragi's office just in time to see
Asuka and Yui enter. They stop, finding Makoto sitting at
Katsuragi's desk, which is for some reason now clean and arranged,
and chalk it up to the blue haired girl going through the filing
cabinet.
"Rei?"
Yui asks.
The
girl looks up, folding the packet of papers and shoving it into her
school uniform's jacket pocket.
"What
are you doing?" Yui asks.
"Stuff."
"I
see," Yui says, "Ah...Lieutenant?"
"Above
my pay grade?" Makoto asks.
Yui
nods.
"Right.
Coffee break it is, then," he says, standing, and walks out,
closing the door behind him. Yui nods to Asuka, who pulls the metal
plate out of the her pocket. She walks over, holding it up, the code
phrase on it in full view of the blue haired nephilim. Rei's eyes go
wide, clouding over...and she shakes her head.
"Sorry,"
she says, "I...uh...it's something, in the back of my head, but..."
Rei
shakes her head again, shrugging.
"Sorry,"
she says, "I don't know."
Yui
nods, leaning against Misato's desk.
"Okay,"
she says, "We found that in Shinji's old SDAT player. We thought
it was a code phrase to get...anything that Naoko left."
Rei
nods.
"Okay,"
Yui continues, "Rei, if you remember anything, contact me at once.
This is about your sister."
Rei
nods again, and ascends through the ventilation duct. Pulling out
Katsuragi's chair, Yui slumps down into it, slamming her fist against
the desk.
"Fuck,"
she growls, "Another dead end. I guess..."
She
pinches the bridge of her nose, clenching eyes shut.
"I
guess when I deprogrammed the girls, it...removed whatever that code
accessed. So Naoko made it a point to screw me over either way."
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First point of order, our Wham Line cliffhanger for the end of the chapter:
Quote:"ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL."
This is certainly interesting, as I have to wonder if the humanoid figure we saw Katsuhito discovering a while back is the Cherubim that Zeruel just ate to make his new form, which suggests an interesting bit about how much the form of the Angel is dependent on the soul. Which also makes one wonder if the Angels aren't limited primarily by their own personalities rather than inherent power levels. After all, Zeruel basically suggests that Kaworu could erase Cherubim with a thought if he ever took his true form. And apparently one S2 organ is as good as another.
On a slightly more confusing note, is Arimasael watching Z's rebirth while meeting with Nathanael, or is it something else that's being born there? Given references to the Crimson Moon and the True Ancestor, I have to wonder if both Lilith and ADAm have been deemed defective and targeted for termination, along with their progeny (thus providing the greater threat referenced in the season opening trailer).o
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."
It's actually a little different. Armisael is about to throw down with Nathanael, the Angel of Explosions (or as Nana says, "BOOM GOD!")
Zeruel has ASSUMED DIRECT CONTROL of another Angel, which is more or less his son, that was planted in the armor layers of Tokyo-3.
So yes. Zeruel is in control of an angry, highly powerful Cherubim/Zerulim hybrid that is about to emerge in the direct heart of Tokyo-3.
Fun times.
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@_@. Made the mistake of checking the link to "Demonic Cannon Girl Nana". Eventually wound up skipping large sections because I just couldn't handle it. Very painful...
---
Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do.
A
beat.
The
white tendril shoots out of the ground, tearing open an armor layer
as concrete and cars go flying. Two white wings emerge from the
center of Tokyo-3, two thick logs on hinges following suit.
The
ends of the limbs bend forward, sharpening at the edges and slamming
into the two buildings flanking it, people running, screaming as an
alabaster shape rises, the endless white only broken by the red
sphere embedded at the top of its skull.
Rising,
it uncoils itself. A serpent hundreds of meters long, held aloft by
two massive wings. Four limbs unfurl, two ending in blades, two
ending in openings that pulse and hum. Its angular, shark like face
bends forward, parting and revealing rows upon rows of teeth,
recessed eyes sharpening as they take in light for the first time.
And
seeing the scurrying insects before him, the newly awakened Angel
roars-
Through
License of that which is named "I Am," I have come.
Though
I shall rend the Base Earth beneath me, I have come.
I
am the son of Might,
Weapon
of the White Seed.
Through
the destruction of the Abomination and the Will of the Messengers I
am born.
You
will tremble before me,
And
pray for Mercy,
But
find I have none to give.
I
am the Wrath of God,
Angel
of Righteousness.
I
am Zadkiel.
And
by will of my Father,
I
have come.
-
-
Chapter
100: Fated Duel
-
-
Uncoiling
its tail, the white skinned creature rises. At the heart of Tokyo-3,
traffic stops and people scream, the very obvious Angel having
appeared in their midst. In stretches out its white, feathered
wings, the curve of its tooth lined jaw giving the impression of a
knowing, patient smile.
This
works in contrast to the pandemonium in NERV-1. Alarms blare,
klaxons screaming to attend battle stations. In Central Dogma,
Misato runs in as the Commander's station rises to its overseeing
point.
"Someone
explain to me what the Hell happened and how an Angel snuck
up on us."
"MAGI
theorizes that it was a Cherubim larva left when ADAM attacked,"
Maya reports, multiple screens popping up, each showing the creature
from a different angle, "Pattern Blue is not registering as a
Cherubim, though..."
The
holographic projectors on the bridge hum to life, forming into a
three dimensional image of the floating flatfish.
"Junior,
what're we dealing with?" Misato demands.
"He
is called Zadkiel. Beyond that, I do not know. I sense him as like
myself, but I have no memory of a being like him existing before. He
is entirely new to me, as he is to you."
"Still
no motion from the Angel," Hyuga reports, "Evacuation procedures
are underway."
"I
can sense that. It wishes you to evacuate. It wants the city empty
before it will strike, as it desires battle."
On
the screen, one of the arms, an arm ending in a bulbous, hollow
structure. It doesn't take them long to realize what it is, before
the end of it fills with light and fires out into a beam. An office
building vaporizes, the expanding pillar of plasma and light rising
into a cross shaped structure.
"Tell
me that was empty," Misato says.
"Maintenance
staff only," Maya says, tearing her eyes from the screen as numbers
begin coming up, "Angel is moving. Present course projected..."
A
three dimensional map of the city appears, a line from the Angel to
the destination appearing.
"Oh,
shit," Misato growls, "It's heading straight for the mall. Prep
the Evas! Someone get Rei to Go-kun and-"
Alarm
klaxons blare, Shinji tapping on the holographic keyboard as the
plates above Unit-07 open, a path projected in his right eye.
"Shinji,"
JA-Tan says, "I
have the path, and I've used your backdoor into the MAGI to electrify
the rails. Is this really wise?"
"No,"
he says, "But we're the only Eva prepped and it's heading for the
densest area in the city. Misato!"
Misato
appears in his left eye, Maya in the background calling out projected
casualty figures.
"Unit-07
is prepped and I'm using my old Balthasar connection to set myself up
for launch. I'm going to intercept the Angel before it can attack
the city center!"
Misato
blinks, turns back to Maya, listens to something, and turns back to
Shinji.
"That's
incredibly stupid and dangerous. Good luck! We're getting Uri back
into Zwei and prepping the rest of the Evas. Give him Hell."
The
connection cuts, Shinji tapping in more commands. The rails begin to
glow as the launch mechanism overclocks. And gripping the controls,
he flashes a brief grin.
"Eva
Launch!" he yells.
In
the Tokyo-3 City Center, the location of many of the malls, shops,
community centers and places of gathering, thousands of civilians
panic. It is not just that they live their day to day lives in
Tokyo-3, the main front of the Angel War. It is not just that the
Angel, which appeared at the heard of the city, vaporized an entire
building for no reason at all. It is that the Angel, from their
view, is getting bigger and bigger. It is heading right
towards them.
Buildings
have already begun retracting as they flow towards shelters, screams
and panic filling the air. Mayumi holds onto her cat tight, Zophie
looking over her shoulder as she stares at the approaching white
shape.
This
is bad, the former Cherubim thinks. She can sense the presence at
the heart of the Angel. She knows it. She knows what's coming. She
darts from Mayumi's arms, running, the girl hot on her heels as the
cat runs towards the nearest evacuation shelter. It is only as
Mayumi catches up to her outside the metal doors that Zophie stops,
sitting on her haunches as the glasses wearing girl scoops her up.
And looking around, seeing her assigned shelter in front of her, she
darts inside.
Alarms
blare, the plates retracting behind the approaching Angel, as the
mouth of Zadkiel opens to reveal row upon row of jagged, bloody
teeth, leveling its eyes upon the fleeing Lilim.
Which
is when a blur launches from the entry point, flying through the air
before dropping knee first on Zadkiel. The tremor shakes the
building, some momentarily stopping their run to safety to see
Unit-07 bring its fist down on the Angel's face, sending teeth
flying.
"Don't
let up!" Shinji yells, "It's Core's on top of its head!"
Unit-07's
left hand comes up, progressive knife extending from her wrist, and
brings it down on the head. Layers of AT Fields fold out, winding
outwards as it pulses against the vibrating blade.
And
then the fields move, appearing between Zadkiel and the Eva, tightly
compressing as the Angel grins. They pulse, expand, and explode
outward, tossing the Eva through the air as the Angel rises,
forgetting the city center buildings as they retract into the ground.
A pulse of its light, and the Angel flies, pursuing the Eva as it
lands in a crouch in an empty portion of the city.
Shinji
groans, rubbing his chest, shaking his head as he sees the Angel
descending. And then he hears it. A voice, at the back of head,
speaking with thunder from the mind of the Angel to him.
"IKARI."
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And Chapter 100 is up.
I'm kinda confused on whether Arimisael is actually in any danger here. He is protecting the humans with his AT field, but if he's as powerful compared to Zeruel as he seems, I dunno that a single N2 warhead would remotely inconvenience him. Even moreso, given it's hard to tell where his core precisely is. IIRC, in canon, Rei just kinda blew herself up and took him with her when he merged with Unit-00. It was, like many things of that area of the show, unclear whether or not it was the fact he'd absorbed the two or the bomb that killed him (and given Sachiel and Zeruel shrug off equivalent damage, I'm unsure as to what this implies about N2 munitions)
Also, I'm not sure if Zadkiel here is actually...well...Zadkiel, or just Zeruel pushing what little mind Zadkiel has aside, similar to his Zerueliem from earlier, which basically didn't have minds aside from when he ASSUMED CONTROL. That said, he's got a wonderful design for emoting in a fight. We really get a hint that this version's a bit more axe crazy than his dad.
I am liking that there seems to be a definite benefit to Zaddy for this fight in being a hybrid. His guiding intelligence is smarter, but the Cherubim on average seem to have more firepower than their equivalents (compare Sachiel to Raziel and the most recent Cherub to Matariel, specifically) but less intelligence. As a result, Zadkiel has his former kin's firepower and possibly regenerative capability, and Zeruel's smarts (though it's questionable how much use someone with Zeruel's sheer firepower has for "tactics").
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."
Electric rails are brought to life, rings that line the tunnel
leading to the surface beginning to hum as they glow blue. The
cradle, the sabot built around it, hums as the railing begins to
energize. Three voices, its keepers in this prison, speak to him.
Of targets. Angels. Tasks. Missions.
It listens. Acknowledges. It can feel the restraints loosening as
they give their okay.
The rail line comes to power. The cradle launches, accelerated to
fifteen times the speed of sound, the vacuum around the sabot cold
and empty, only charged by the static. G-forces that would pulverize
humans hammer against it, but it does not feel pain.
Miles it travels. Hundreds, maybe, before the tunnel ends and it is
launched. The sabor peels away as it exits the shaft, the dead moon
beneath it receding into the distance. Limbs frozen by armature and
restraint, it hits the atmosphere and multiples of the speed of
sound.
Fire and friction roar past against the purple and black armor.
Deep within, beyond the brain and sensory organs and cyberization
systems, the red Core deep within the chest begins to pulse.
“Level
2 restrictions lifted.”
The screws twist out. Awareness. The pumping of liquid fire
through its veins, as the power begins to return to it.
“Authorization
received. Limited Core autonomy granted.”
It can feel the Blue Patterns. It can feel the enemy.
“Synchronization
activated. Weapons suite, online. Level A2-9 Combat Killform:
Activated.”
The beat of the Core. The hum of the S2 organ. The armor obeys it
once more.
“Evangelion,
Mark-09:”
In the deep recesses of the armored mask, three eyes glow red.
“RISE.”
In the light and the heat and the roar of the detonated Lilim
weapon, he feels his form beginning to burn. The sky turns white, a
flash that blinds anything that looks upon it. From on high, it at
first seems like a balloon, inflating outward as a solid ball of
flame.
Next comes the shockwave. It outraces the fire, shattering windows,
bending trees backwards, the clouds save for Nathanael dispersing as
it roars through the air. Around the rising cloud of dust, ash, and
flame, the soil begins to ignite. A ring of fire rises, heavy ash
and incinerated soil wafting into the air as the wall of flame
catches up to the wall of supersonic air.
The trees, bent and broken, ignite. They shatter as they burn,
their remains carried through the air by the buffeting winds. Rising
into the air, the ash and smoke form the familiar mushroom cloud, the
white light of the opening flash slowly fading over the burn,
charred, and dead landscape that surrounds the city...to reveal the
orange dome surrounding the city itself, the milky white wall
covering every building, every streets, every wall...and every life.
The cheers of the followers of Armisael, and those Lilim who were
saved by him echo through the air.
And then they realize that their protector was not within the dome
with them. They look up, to see the white ring cracked, red and
black, broken at the edges as it begins to unravel. A final gasp,
and the ring shatters, raining white light down upon the city, down
upon the earth as the apocalyptic thunderstorm that is Nathanael
reforms.
Armisael can feel his awareness straining. He can feel his own
fruit of life beginning to whither. And he can feel, as the darkness
begins to overtake his own consciousness, the First of them, half a
world away, reaching out its own consciousness to his own...and to
somewhere else.
The petals of white, the remains, sink into the ground. The
disparate remains of the awareness that was the Angel of the Unborn
recedes, withering, the blackness overtaking it as it sinks deeper
and deeper, shallower and shallower, the consciousness once more
returning to the world of the White Egg, through darkness and night
and into the great void...
And instead of emptiness and sleep, there is a white dot. A
glowering point, which expands, becoming more and more complex, more
and more alive, more and more encompassing his vision, until it
unfurls entirely into the Tree of Life.
Arise,
my child.
For
the End draws near.
In
the wilds, I have found you. In death, I have chosen you. And in
change, I revive you.
And
though this gift may be viewed as an atrocity, and though this path
the path of the other,
The
world grows barren. The enemy of everything seeks to bring about the
end.
And
you will fight it.
For
you are a Dominion.
The darkness recedes. The ground around Rio bursts, glowing white
fronds bursting from the blackened ground. Around each white fine
that rises, the soil once more becomes black and rich, green sprouts
breaking through.
The flame and light and energy released from the Lilim weapon begins
to rise, to flow, into the fronds as they reach their apex around the
city...
And form into a ring of light.
-
-
Chapter 101: Psychology of Monsters
Taking stock:
1) I am writing an omake right now, as I struggle with writer's block over chapter 101, that involves the pilots being enrolled in Hogwarts after Rei commits GREAT SOCIAL JUSTICE on the Dursleys. In it, Rei gets her hands on a Time Turner. Be afraid.
2) Having just seen Transformers 3, Go-kun shall soon get an air-combat armor upgrade. Designed by the Ree.
3) I think the season will end in 10 chapters. This season has gone on very, very long.
4) The Beast isn't done, yet.
“Okay,” Shinji says, “Um..maybe...I suppose...all the times
we've ended the world have made the...let's say standard for ending
the world a little lower. Because I'm not sure if an Eva self
destructing is supposed to completely screw up reality.”
He pauses, folds his arms, and taps his foot on the glass plane.
More green shoots are popping from the glass. A dove lands in front
of him, tilts its head, and flies away.
“Well...I dunno. I don't know what goes into an Eva in the first
place, so...huh.”
He scratches his head. Turning around, he sees that Tokyo-3 is
looking more normal. Some of the white has left the light, some of
the ethereal effect and haze beginning to clear up. The sky is
bright yellow, now, like those times Lilith would mess with his head.
“Huh. Well. Okay,” he says, and sighs, shrugging, “Okay.
Let's...let's trace our steps. I was in Unit-07. The Mark-09 got
taken down waaaaay easier than it should have, and it and the Angel,
which for some reason sounded a lot like Zeruel, exploded. But I'm
not dead, I think. What else.”
He turns back from Tokyo-3, back to the outskirts which are more
green now. He can even see the first traces of an actual road,
albeit cracked and gravel, with some glass covering it.
“Okay,” he says, “What happened. Really. I need to figure
out what happened. And why the entire city's silent.”
He blinks. The sky is yellow. Why is the sky yellow, he asks
himself.
And he looks up, staring, against all rationality, directly at the
sun.
And the sun moves, shifting in place, to shine down directly on
Shinji Ikari.
“How did (did [did {did you break free} you find me] you see)
know?”
-
-
Chapter 102: Triumphant
-
-
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Ooooh, Arael. Interesting.
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."
Well, Season 4's coming to a close with Chapter 102, actually. I have a very...interesting...way of ending it.
A scream. Ripped from the form he had inhabited, torn from the
power he commanded, the world once more becomes amber fluid and glass
walls. Awareness snaps back to the small, rough edged fragment,
preserved for its own good, in the glass cylinder deep beneath
NERV-Berlin.
He continues screaming.
Rage.
Pain.
Anger.
All conveyed through the wail coming forth through the speakers in
the sterile white lab beneath the Second Branch.
But no one is there to hear him.
Save for one, of course. One being, far below him, buried by years
and sediment, dimly aware of the anger and rage. Someone unaffected
by the great plots up above, sleeping through the aeons as it is wont
to.
And it, too, begins to stir.
He floats, aimless. He remembers, feels the impact. Rocking back
and forth inside the entry plug, casting his own AT Field with Zwei's
to save them both.
And he finds himself in the darkness, once more. Between life and
death. Between awareness and oblivion. He floats, aimless. Like in
the depths of the Core of Unit-03, near death at the hands of Raziel.
And once more, he sees it, like the faded memory in the back of his
mind.
Once more he sees the rippling across the field of his mind,
expanding outwards, lines of light becoming more and more complex
over time, going from a single line into the expanding, all consuming
Tree of Life.
And once more, not a memory but present and aware, it speaks to him.
Arise,
my child.
For
your moment has come.
In
darkness, I found you.
In
defeat, I chose you.
In
victory, I blessed you.
Though
your gifts have been muted
And
your incubation long
The
time has come to take your place.
You
are my sword and shield.
You
are my vanguard.
You
shall be the light that casts away the darkness,
For
you are a Dominion.
And the Sun rises over Tokyo-3.
A groan, and she rises off the floor. Blinking the haze out of her
eyes, she reaches up, grabbing the edge of the wood and metal desk
and using it as leverage to pull herself to her feet. Her legs creak
and her knees pop in protest, like they hadn't been used in days.
Weeks. Months.
Looking up at the glass case holding the design blueprints of
Unit-01, she sees her hair matted to the left half of her face, the
left lens of her glasses cracked.
And her cell phone, ringing.
Flipping it open, stumbling to her desk and the waiting bottle of
advil, she brings it up to her ear.
“Yes?”
“Dr.
Ikari. This is NERV-LUNA AI Durandal. Please respond.”
“Responding.”
“Confirmation
code.”
“Yee Cat Hector Aibo.”
“...checking...confirmation
code accepted. Stand by- YUI! Is that you?”
The voice changed, going from the regular melody of Durandal's voice
to the excited voice of the Director of NERV-Luna.
“Tom? What's wrong?”
“What's
wrong? Do you have any idea how long we've been trying to get in
contact with any of you? Durandal just got in contact with the Third
but he got cut off before he could confirm!”
“Yes...what? We've been out of contact? For how long?”
Muttering on the other end, arguments back and forth. A delay, the
light seconds it takes for the signal to go back and forth between
NERV-1 and Luna.
“Yui.
Get down to Central Dogma. You need to see this.”
The
light floods, washing over the blasted plane of the Angelic Overmind.
The glassed ground cracks and shatters, becoming dirt and soul as
the green sprouts burst through. It begins off the horizon, past the
mountains that speak with thunder, past the blackened sky and the
shattered giants. It begins as light, flooding red and gold like
liquid flame over the sky.
In the car, circling the plane, Israfel twists his face, as Kaji
stares out the window transfixed.
“What is that?” he asks.
A
new beginning,
Israfel says, The
kid's been sleeping. But now he's waking up. And everyone else's
waking up with him.
The Angel of Song and Poetry rubs the back of his hand over one of
the three holes, the one on the upper right of his mask like face.
As
far as entrances go, I think he's about tied with Big Z. Not on
destruction, mind you. But, I mean, in style.
Kaji blinks, turning from the rising sun.
“Okay, I missed something. What exactly is happening.”
Israfel twists his face. Holding onto Kaji's hand, Almacia perks an
eyebrow.
It's
simple, Lilim. You've been sleeping. All of you. And now it's time
to wake up.
Over Tokyo-3, the sphere rises. Not the Sun, but a Sun. A new Sun,
born of the world, born of the White Egg and nurtured in the Black
Egg. It rises over the city, bathing it in its light as it rises, a
perfect sphere of light but not of flame. If one looks past the
brilliance, one would see it is composed entirely of orange and gold,
shifting octagonal fields interlocked into a near perfect sphere.
And if one looked past that,
Past the fields of light, past the barriers of the soul, past the
imagined machinery holding it in place and past the red ichor forming
the heart of the construct,
One would see the floating form of Uriel Sohryu, eyes open and
blazing with gold light.
In
defiance of He who is called “I AM”, I have risen.
Though
I have walked this Earth for a lifetime, I have risen.
I
am the first of the Dominions.
Vanguard
of the protectors.
I
am a child of the White Egg, incarnate in a child of the Black Egg,
And
I am the Shield to them both.
I
have walked through the Fire
And
I have suffered through the Shadow.
And
I am tempered as Steel.
I
am the Sword of God.
Angel
of the Sun.
I
am Uriel.
And
I have Risen.
The green pushes through, washing over the world of the Overmind as
the golden sun rises high in the sky. It shines down, liquid light
washing over the world of the Black Egg, filling it, completing it.
The dank skies clear, the eidoleons marking the edge of the world
leaning back, basking in its glow.
“What is that?” Kaji asks.
Something
new,
Israfel responds, Something
wonderful. I don't believe it, but she did it. She actually did it.
“Did what?”
She
made the right circumstances, made the right situation for a new
Angel to appear. Well, we all knew the kid was going to be powerful,
but she got him to manifest in the best way possible.
Kaji blinks. The sunlight doesn't hurt his eyes.
“What do you mean?”
I
mean that every time you kill an Angel, you take away something
fundamental. When Shamsel bought it, our world went dark. When
Sandalphon ate lightning and shit himself with the THUNDAH, our world
went barren. The kid's given our world something we never thought
we'd have another of.
On the three hole face of the Angel, Kaji could swear, if only
momentarily, that there is a smile.
He
gave us a sunrise.
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Niiiice. Looking forward to this.
(Oh, and btw, did anyone notice that one of the Evangelion plotlines on the Anime Addventure just sprouted an episode entitled http://addventure.bast-enterprises.de/248561.html]"Beware the REE"?)
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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... What.
I mean... DAMMIT GREGG, MY BRAIN!
It is broken, and I am now utterly baffled.
GreggHL Wrote:Behold!
New Chapter. ...
If you'll excuse me, I'll be picking up the remains of my brain, which overloaded upon reading this chapter.
Brian Yaple
BYapes@aol.com
...blown up, but in a damn good way...
Brian Y.
Seed Chronicles
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REBOOT! 
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So, reading through the spacebattles thread, I can parse out a few things:
The entirety of Arimasael's activity to this point may/may not have happened (which I hope it did, because Armi rebooting a Cherubim into a full blown Archangel was kind of awesome after his Dominion reboot)
Almost all of Kei's extended family of seed AIs in Europe don't technically exist, which could prove....problematic with regards to Tabris finding out he had kids that he never really had.
A lot of the wacky hijinx in this season only happened because Lillith was messing with Arael's lotus eater machine, thus making Iruel's continued survival questionable.
The Angels have one dead case that isn't dead (Bardiel never attacked, and ergo, is Still Alive)
Altogether, I find the review interesting (and it makes certain elements of the fight with Zadkiel make sense), but there's going to be a laundry list of unintended consequences from this, I suspect.
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."
The laundry list of complications for this could best be described as "Season 5."
The blue eyes light up. The gurgling abomination before the Eva
rears back, startled, before restraints in the cage and carriage tear
and a purple, clawed hand grabs him by the back of his head and pulls
him close. Two eyes blazing like two suns, the monster roars as the
Mark-01's horn is driven into his shoulder, black ichor pockmarking
the metal.
“Let's
take this outside,”
Shinji growls, and the Mark-01's free hand slams into the launch
controls on the wall. The carriage shudders, the catwalks attempting
to retract, before the rails light up and send both Eva and monster
speeding up the rails to the surface.
Neon
Genesis Evangelion
Nobody
Dies:
Season
5:
Gods
and (not) Humans
The Bird of Light and the Giant of Will. The two inhabitants of the
verdant green plane, lit under the golden sun high in the sky. Wings
unfurled for both of them, one set made of light, one set covered in
unblinking, crimson eyes. One stands, one floats, its light shining
down upon him to no effect. Of all her siblings, he is the one whom
her light cannot affect, cannot subsume, for he is Will and Truth.
“Arael,”
Tabris says, “You've
gone too far! What you did was-”
“What
I did was (was [was {was for the future} for us all] to bring new
life) necessary.”
The green field shudders and shakes. The Giant reaches out, but she
is out of reach, taking her place high in the sky.
“Do
you know what you've done?!”
he roars, “Do you
know what you cost me?!”
“Yes
(yes [yes {Yes}]), but it was (was [may be {was not what it seemed}
for the best] as real as you made it) unfortunate.”
The Overmind shudders and shakes. Tabris falls to his knees, his
many eyed visage dipping down, his wings folding down around him like
a great, many eyed cloak. The Bird of Light, the Light of God,
lowers herself to him, her face, that what it is, hidden by the
glorious presence she carries with her. So he cannot see her
sympathy.
“Why,”
Tabris
asks, “Why,
Arael? What prize is worth all this? This sacrifice? What is your
goal? What will you become?”
“I
will become (glorious and [the mother of {God} God] triumphant) our
savior.”
He looks up, his many eyes focused upon her.
“There
is power in (beauty and [creation and {control} life] wonder) all
things.”
-
-
Chapter
72: Will
-
-
The
lift shoots out, the carriage stopping and sending the tentacled
monster flying, flipping over before slamming into a mountain outside
Tokyo-3. The restraints release, and the Mark-01 pitches forward,
armor scored, horn half melted, and steps out of the carriage.
The left shoulder fin unfolds, a hand popping out, the purple and
green mecha's right hand grabbing the hand and pulling out an
extending Progressive short sword, flipping it in its hand and
leveling its left arm at the rising tentacle monster.
“Forward
momentum's a bitch, ain't it?”
Shinji asks, the Mark-01 stretching it's neck, “Bring
it, Squidbob.”
The back armor of the corrupted Go-kun explodes with a scream,
dozens of tentacles rising out, some baring eyes. Some baring fangs.
Some baring long, sharp, barbed knives.
“Hoo
boi,”
Shinji says, “I've
seen enough Hentai to know where this is going.”
Four spiked legs slam into the ground, and roaring and gurgling,
Go-kun charges the Mark-01.
And on a hill nearby, there is a squeal of delight as Kensuke Aida
aims his video camera. It's an Evangelion fighting a Tentacle
Monster.
His life is fulfilled.
The opaque field flashes, blurs, and becomes transparent, revealing
the white walls and ceiling of the Project E labs. Small boxes,
digital information surrounding them, click on the lights, the seams
in the wall, and finally focusing on the red haired face of Kyoko
Zeppelin Sohryu. Her hair is frayed, fuzzy, stray hairs curling up
and almost giving her a red halo around her head.
“Kirishima, do you hear me?” she asks.
“Loud
and clear, Dr. Sohryu. SUIT's systems are all responding.”
“Excellent. We're deploying you shortly.”
The view tilts. Mana realizes after a moment it is because she
tilted her head.
“Hate
to ask, Doc...but in what? Jet Alone's totalled and we don't have
anything, y'know, available Eva wise.”
The
floor shakes, and begins descending. She looks around, realizes that
they were in the part of the Project E labs they keep the bulk lift
platforms in, as floors and girders pass by.
“We've adapted it to run on the power cable. Its N2 reactor was
overloaded so it had to be replaced. And the system has been set up
to be flown by wire, as we don't have the room or the parts to
install a cockpit. Instead, it's going to be linked to your SUIT, so
you'll be up there and you'll be directing it by line of sight
remote.”
The girders and floors give way to a massive vehicle bay. And the
screen tilts again, as Mana tilts her head. The lines of her SUIT
glow blue, the seams glowing in tune with the power monitor, the
circle on her chest. Her opaque faceplate turns transparent to give
her a better view, as the platform clears the framework and she sees
the gigantic, vented blue back fin.
“Holy
crap.”
“Most of the damage was superficial,” Kyoko explains, “The
main damage was the sniper shot the Commander delt to its CPU, so
you're going to be controlling it. But since Tokita originally
intended to replace you and Jet Alone with it...”
They clear the head, easily the size of an Evangelion's head, but
blue and white, with cameras lain all over the plating. The mecha,
more a beast than humanoid, standing stooped over on two legs with
two cannon baring arms underneath it like a giant mechanical
tyrannosaur, begins to move as lights flicker over it.
“We thought that the TRIDENT would be a suitable replacement while
we figure out what to do with JAP's AI core.”
Underneath the helmet, Mana grins.
“Fucking
metal.”
The
doors at the back of Central Dogma open, and Pieter turns from the
station on top to see a beard enter, and attached to it Gendo Ikari.
He tilts his head, squints, and steps aside as Gendo stands at his
desk, a white gloved hand stroking the immaculately groomed facial
hair.
“What
is that?” Pieter asks.
“A
beard,” Gendo responds, “While we were out, I apparently grew
one. Excuse my tardiness, I had to look presentable.”
“Go-kun's
Core corruption at 87%,” Maya shouts from down on the bridge, the
screen shifting to the image of the corrupted Evangelion slamming the
Mark-01's head into a nearby hill, “TRIDENT ready for launch!”
“What
Evangelions do we have?” Gendo says, clearing his throat and
walking down the stairs to the bridge, “Katsuragi, report!”
“Unit-00
has been compromised,” Misato says, quickly saluting, looking up to
Ikari's eyes, “Uri rescued Mari, but we can't find him. Rei's been
spotted all over the base, sir.”
Gendo
nods. Hand still stroking his beard, he watches the battle that
rages up on high. For some reason, he has deja vu. That he should
be...proud...of the Eva, moreso than usual. Given, he no longer
hates her like he used to. No longer blames her for what happened to
Yui, those twelve years ago.
“TRIDENT
on the launch rails,” Makoto reports, “Sending it up!”
“Options,”
Gendo says.
“Not
many,” Yui says, arms folded, walking back to him, “Go-kun
compromised. Unless we can remove the Core and the S2 engine safely,
we can either destroy him, or restrain him.”
He
nods. A grunt, snapping off his glasses and staring at the screen.
“Well,
then,” he says, “Let's see if we can...”
He
slides the glasses back on.
“Tame
the beast.”
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YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
"No can brain today. Want cheezeburger."
From NGE: Nobody Dies, by Gregg Landsman
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5579457/1/NGE_Nobody_Dies
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