All NGE and SKU characters belong to their respective owners.
Summary: He felt like he had to strangle her then, because no way should her pale skin be growing dark from right underneath his fingertips.
http://archiveofourown.org/works/548356
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8650175/1/World-End-s-Messiah
http://forums.ohtori.nu/viewtopic.php?id=3248
http://forum.evageeks.org/thread/13327/World-Ends-Messiah-NGE-SKU-post-series-both-series/
All NGE and SKU characters belong to their respective owners.
Chapter 2
“Ikari-kun . . .” whimpered Ayanami Rei from where she sprawled wet and shaken upon the mucky shore, as she ruminated on how Ikari Shinji – the only one who mattered to her in this world – just got abducted away from right in front of her wide red eyes.
She was born a clone of Lilith, and had, after the fusion, acquired the full power of Lilith. Yet, power alone meant nothing; power without will to back it up would simply laid unused and wasted. One needed a will to exercise power, and one needed reason to summon such will.
Throughout her different incarnations – all of which she now recalled after Instrumentality – Ikari- kun remained the only one who could give her that reason.
So of course, when that thing just abruptly showed up and approached Ikari-kun in its sinister manner, Rei did not hesitate in stepping up to interfere. A barrier of sorts – something that felt familiar to her senses; that she could not yet identify – materialized in front of her, blocking her advance. Not having the time to properly analyze the barrier’s nature, Rei hammered at it with her angel-strength A.T. field. When that did not result in any noticeable effect on the barrier, she reversed tactic and tried neutralizing its physical form with a focused, limited-range Anti A.T. field – one that she took care to not touch Ikari-kun’s vulnerable vessel in any way . . . and still, nothing; not a single dent on the being’s barrier whatsoever.
A sweet, floral scent – one that made her concentration waver – was starting to fill the air . . . was the “thing” trying to sedate her?
Pulse quickening with dread – an unfamiliar sensation to one such as her – Rei tried to re-establish her psychic link with Ikari-kun . . . and found the signals largely diffused by the barrier raised by the “thing”; more that that, what impressions she could sense from Ikari-kun’s end was filled with . . . apathetic non-recognition?
Ikari-kun not recognizing her? Impossible . . . Has the “thing” managed to breach into Ikari-kun’s mind already?
It was amidst the violent blasting of Rei’s A.T. Field projections (ones that sent the entire shore rumbling up in smoke clouds) that the maddeningly unaffected “thing” made its languid retreat, bringing along with it a blissful-seeming Ikari-kun, who looked happier than she could ever remember him to be.
“Ikari-kun!” She screamed at the boy, even while knowing that the “thing”'s barrier will likely block off her sound. “Don’t go with that thing! It is-”
And the barrier – or rather, what she thought was a barrier – turned visible and distinctively metallic; at first glance, Rei thought it now resembled the torso of a vast serpent, that with the jagged pieces resembling large, grayish scales . . .
. . . no, not scales; swords; a vast wall of countless, innumerable swords, all stacked against each other in a zigzag, scaly formation . . . no sooner had Rei noticed that, the swords shifted such that their sharp tips now were pointing outwards as spikes on a sea urchin’s surface.
All. Pointing. At. Her.
She barely had time to raise her defense as the metallic swarm rushed her in one vast, dragon-like mass; having experienced the “thing”’s uncanny ability to repel her previous attacks, she had her Field arrayed in layers - which turned out to be what saved her in the end.
Upon contact with her A.T. Field, each and every one of the stopped swords morphed instantaneously into the same double-helical shape – one all too familiar to her.
“Spear . . . of Longinus?”
Indeed, the transformed weapons now were as carbon copies of the Artifact of Instrumentality – down to the very fact that their double points appeared to have little trouble in puncturing through an A.T. Field – except for their being downsized to human-scale. Before Rei could dwell further upon the shocking discovery, the mini-spears had since broken through her defense . . .
. . . witch, witch, accursed witch . . . chanted their hate-filled psychic vibes, as they shot towards her now defenseless vessel at point blank range . . .
. . . before waves of some unidentifiable energy rippled through the space around her, disintegrating the innumerable spears back into their original LCL form, such that the entire seashore now was showered under amber rain, drenching her as she slowly collapsed from a feeling utmost alien to her – the feeling other people had called fear.
“Ikari-kun . . .”
Through the mild drizzle of LCL, Rei saw that Ikari-kun was no longer within view. Within that split instant of the spears rushing past her A.T. Field, the “thing” had somehow moved off and settled down to over a mile off into the distance. Extending her senses (shaper than that of all three Magis combined post Instrumentality) she detected to her dismay remnants of the boy’s pattern signals now coming warped by what appeared to be inter-dimensional distortion - the warped signals were coming from right inside the “thing”.
Like what had happened before, Ikari-kun had again gotten sucked into a pocket dimension inside another powerful being – this one displaying no pattern she capable of detecting, despite the powers it had displayed thus far being so similar to that of the Angels she had since encountered. Was the “thing” a child of another Seed of Life yet unknown? Or, perhaps, another Seed itself, one that should not have been on Earth? Yet . . . each Seed was supposed to be accompanied by only one Spear of Longinus? The vast swarm of hate-radiating spears stabbing through her A.T. Field and was about to skewer her before melting away. . . despite their being of human tool-size, just how did the “thing” managed to manipulate so many of them all at once?
What did it want with Ikari-kun, a human to whom she had given power over all souls on Earth?
Getting back on her feet, Rei was just about to levitate herself up and after the retreated, unknown “thing” now holding Ikari-kun hostage, when a soft, husky sigh sounded from behind her.
“Hurts, doesn’t it?”
Shocked by how someone could come up to her from behind without her sensing anything, she whirled around to see what looked to be a dark-skinned girl around her age – one from whom she could not detect any human pattern.
“You surrendered to the boy your control over Instrumentality, such that his will now decides the fate of all mankind,” stated the “girl”, her voice even with vapid empathy. “Do you know, that once you have given your all to the one you love, then you could only watch on powerless when he is to stray away from you? This timeless mistake has been the ruin of many girls throughout the generations. I know, because I was the first amongst them to fall.”
“You . . .” Something occurred to Rei then, and she starting drawing up her A.T. Field. “You are . . . !”
The “girl” – who managed to remain dry and immaculate amidst the brief shower of LCL by way of an invisible barrier cloaking her person – raised a hand in a pacifying gesture. “I mean you no harm, Ayanami Rei; in fact, I just saved you from the Swords of Hate.”
“You are related to the thing that ensnared Ikari-kun,” stated Rei, now analyzing the “girl” (who obviously knew more about her than she it) by sight (as her senses were useless in detecting whatever pattern the “thing” exudes), and found that it bore much resemblance to the monstrosity that she had just battled.
“I am,” the “girl” admitted, readily, “but said relationship no longer hold meaning for me.” Smiling, she extended a dark, delicate hand out towards Rei. “You can call me Himemiya Anthy.”
Rei did not take the offered hand, and instead continue on drawing up the full might of her A.T. Field. “You even smell like that thing.” Just what was this bittersweet scent that managed to cover even the salted blood-smell of the LCL shore? Something akin to that of an earth flora . . . sub rosa?
“Do not fight me, child,” the “girl” called Himemiya Anthy eyed her with something between empathy and pity in her eyes. “Before you, before Lilith, I was.”
“That, you were, Himemiya Anthy-san.”
In a whirl of motion that even Rei had trouble following, Nagisa Kaworu had appeared between her and Himemiya. With his visibly tensed back to her (Was he trying to defend her?), the now uncharacteristically nervous Adam’s child reached forth to take the “girl”’s offered hand in a civilly-guarded handshake.
“To what do we owe the honor of a visit from one of the First Ancestral Race?” asked Kaworu, adjusting the large white-and-red visor now covering his upper profile with a free hand. “What do you want with Ikari Shinji-kun?”
To Be Continued . . . ?
Chapter 2
“Ikari-kun . . .” whimpered Ayanami Rei from where she sprawled wet and shaken upon the mucky shore, as she ruminated on how Ikari Shinji – the only one who mattered to her in this world – just got abducted away from right in front of her wide red eyes.
She was born a clone of Lilith, and had, after the fusion, acquired the full power of Lilith. Yet, power alone meant nothing; power without will to back it up would simply laid unused and wasted. One needed a will to exercise power, and one needed reason to summon such will.
Throughout her different incarnations – all of which she now recalled after Instrumentality – Ikari- kun remained the only one who could give her that reason.
So of course, when that thing just abruptly showed up and approached Ikari-kun in its sinister manner, Rei did not hesitate in stepping up to interfere. A barrier of sorts – something that felt familiar to her senses; that she could not yet identify – materialized in front of her, blocking her advance. Not having the time to properly analyze the barrier’s nature, Rei hammered at it with her angel-strength A.T. field. When that did not result in any noticeable effect on the barrier, she reversed tactic and tried neutralizing its physical form with a focused, limited-range Anti A.T. field – one that she took care to not touch Ikari-kun’s vulnerable vessel in any way . . . and still, nothing; not a single dent on the being’s barrier whatsoever.
A sweet, floral scent – one that made her concentration waver – was starting to fill the air . . . was the “thing” trying to sedate her?
Pulse quickening with dread – an unfamiliar sensation to one such as her – Rei tried to re-establish her psychic link with Ikari-kun . . . and found the signals largely diffused by the barrier raised by the “thing”; more that that, what impressions she could sense from Ikari-kun’s end was filled with . . . apathetic non-recognition?
Ikari-kun not recognizing her? Impossible . . . Has the “thing” managed to breach into Ikari-kun’s mind already?
It was amidst the violent blasting of Rei’s A.T. Field projections (ones that sent the entire shore rumbling up in smoke clouds) that the maddeningly unaffected “thing” made its languid retreat, bringing along with it a blissful-seeming Ikari-kun, who looked happier than she could ever remember him to be.
“Ikari-kun!” She screamed at the boy, even while knowing that the “thing”'s barrier will likely block off her sound. “Don’t go with that thing! It is-”
And the barrier – or rather, what she thought was a barrier – turned visible and distinctively metallic; at first glance, Rei thought it now resembled the torso of a vast serpent, that with the jagged pieces resembling large, grayish scales . . .
. . . no, not scales; swords; a vast wall of countless, innumerable swords, all stacked against each other in a zigzag, scaly formation . . . no sooner had Rei noticed that, the swords shifted such that their sharp tips now were pointing outwards as spikes on a sea urchin’s surface.
All. Pointing. At. Her.
She barely had time to raise her defense as the metallic swarm rushed her in one vast, dragon-like mass; having experienced the “thing”’s uncanny ability to repel her previous attacks, she had her Field arrayed in layers - which turned out to be what saved her in the end.
Upon contact with her A.T. Field, each and every one of the stopped swords morphed instantaneously into the same double-helical shape – one all too familiar to her.
“Spear . . . of Longinus?”
Indeed, the transformed weapons now were as carbon copies of the Artifact of Instrumentality – down to the very fact that their double points appeared to have little trouble in puncturing through an A.T. Field – except for their being downsized to human-scale. Before Rei could dwell further upon the shocking discovery, the mini-spears had since broken through her defense . . .
. . . witch, witch, accursed witch . . . chanted their hate-filled psychic vibes, as they shot towards her now defenseless vessel at point blank range . . .
. . . before waves of some unidentifiable energy rippled through the space around her, disintegrating the innumerable spears back into their original LCL form, such that the entire seashore now was showered under amber rain, drenching her as she slowly collapsed from a feeling utmost alien to her – the feeling other people had called fear.
“Ikari-kun . . .”
Through the mild drizzle of LCL, Rei saw that Ikari-kun was no longer within view. Within that split instant of the spears rushing past her A.T. Field, the “thing” had somehow moved off and settled down to over a mile off into the distance. Extending her senses (shaper than that of all three Magis combined post Instrumentality) she detected to her dismay remnants of the boy’s pattern signals now coming warped by what appeared to be inter-dimensional distortion - the warped signals were coming from right inside the “thing”.
Like what had happened before, Ikari-kun had again gotten sucked into a pocket dimension inside another powerful being – this one displaying no pattern she capable of detecting, despite the powers it had displayed thus far being so similar to that of the Angels she had since encountered. Was the “thing” a child of another Seed of Life yet unknown? Or, perhaps, another Seed itself, one that should not have been on Earth? Yet . . . each Seed was supposed to be accompanied by only one Spear of Longinus? The vast swarm of hate-radiating spears stabbing through her A.T. Field and was about to skewer her before melting away. . . despite their being of human tool-size, just how did the “thing” managed to manipulate so many of them all at once?
What did it want with Ikari-kun, a human to whom she had given power over all souls on Earth?
Getting back on her feet, Rei was just about to levitate herself up and after the retreated, unknown “thing” now holding Ikari-kun hostage, when a soft, husky sigh sounded from behind her.
“Hurts, doesn’t it?”
Shocked by how someone could come up to her from behind without her sensing anything, she whirled around to see what looked to be a dark-skinned girl around her age – one from whom she could not detect any human pattern.
“You surrendered to the boy your control over Instrumentality, such that his will now decides the fate of all mankind,” stated the “girl”, her voice even with vapid empathy. “Do you know, that once you have given your all to the one you love, then you could only watch on powerless when he is to stray away from you? This timeless mistake has been the ruin of many girls throughout the generations. I know, because I was the first amongst them to fall.”
“You . . .” Something occurred to Rei then, and she starting drawing up her A.T. Field. “You are . . . !”
The “girl” – who managed to remain dry and immaculate amidst the brief shower of LCL by way of an invisible barrier cloaking her person – raised a hand in a pacifying gesture. “I mean you no harm, Ayanami Rei; in fact, I just saved you from the Swords of Hate.”
“You are related to the thing that ensnared Ikari-kun,” stated Rei, now analyzing the “girl” (who obviously knew more about her than she it) by sight (as her senses were useless in detecting whatever pattern the “thing” exudes), and found that it bore much resemblance to the monstrosity that she had just battled.
“I am,” the “girl” admitted, readily, “but said relationship no longer hold meaning for me.” Smiling, she extended a dark, delicate hand out towards Rei. “You can call me Himemiya Anthy.”
Rei did not take the offered hand, and instead continue on drawing up the full might of her A.T. Field. “You even smell like that thing.” Just what was this bittersweet scent that managed to cover even the salted blood-smell of the LCL shore? Something akin to that of an earth flora . . . sub rosa?
“Do not fight me, child,” the “girl” called Himemiya Anthy eyed her with something between empathy and pity in her eyes. “Before you, before Lilith, I was.”
“That, you were, Himemiya Anthy-san.”
In a whirl of motion that even Rei had trouble following, Nagisa Kaworu had appeared between her and Himemiya. With his visibly tensed back to her (Was he trying to defend her?), the now uncharacteristically nervous Adam’s child reached forth to take the “girl”’s offered hand in a civilly-guarded handshake.
“To what do we owe the honor of a visit from one of the First Ancestral Race?” asked Kaworu, adjusting the large white-and-red visor now covering his upper profile with a free hand. “What do you want with Ikari Shinji-kun?”
To Be Continued . . . ?
NOTES:
I think an email exchange I've had on FFMLwill clarify some things about what I plan to do with this fic.
- On Mon, 11/19/12, Dot Warner dotchan wrote:
From: Dot Warner dotchan
Subject: Re: [FFML] [FANFIC][NGE][SKU]World End's Messiah Chapter 1
To: "The Fanfiction Mailing List" ffml
Date: Monday, November 19, 2012, 1:33 PM
My only bit of crit is that I wished you'd done more than just rehash the final sequence of the End of Evangelion beat for beat except for the bit you threw in there to connect it with Utena.
Now, as far as the plot premise goes, my opinion is that the theme of SKU is the choice between mindless bliss and complicated reality. By the EoE, Shinji's already made his choice-he no longer wants to be part of the system, but he also couldn't give two shits about being the god of the new world-and Asuka's there either because she's strong willed enough to survive, or Shinji can't quite bring himself to erase her from his life. I think that it's make more sense for Ohtori to exist in the sea of LCL as that metaphorical "Garden of Eden" from which mankind must choose to either remain or leave.
MY REPLY
Thanks for the detailed crit, Dot!
Yes, chapter one does read like a rehash of the final sequence of EoE, but I need it there for the built up to Shinji's surreal encounter with Akio-Asuka; plus, I do make implicit what was going on Shinji's mind (via his POV) starting from the beginning of the scene, so hopefully I've inputted something of my own creation (i.e. why he was non-responsive at seeing schoolgirl Rei's image above the LCL sea) into the sequence.
As for Ohtori . . . I think it differs significantly from the LCL sea in that people are not mindlessly blissful - they are tightly controlled by a higher power (Akio) like tools to experience hurt and trauma via crashing of wills (things the LCL sea bunch are dodging), and many of them (like the Student Council) are aware of it. I will spoiler things a bit by saying that this is a story where all the mysterious elements of SKU shall be explained via canon NGE Wiki Terminology. World End's Messiah will contain my take on the true nature of "Ohtori Academy", "Akio", and "Anthy" in this Sci-fi setting, why "they" still exist after 3I, and why they do what they now do, The fact that "Ohtori Academy" could now just appear in the ruins of Tokyo-3 should be a pretty big spoiler as to what "it" really is (but no, it's not quite that most obvious possibility as you might immediately think).
I think an email exchange I've had on FFMLwill clarify some things about what I plan to do with this fic.
- On Mon, 11/19/12, Dot Warner dotchan wrote:
From: Dot Warner dotchan
Subject: Re: [FFML] [FANFIC][NGE][SKU]World End's Messiah Chapter 1
To: "The Fanfiction Mailing List" ffml
Date: Monday, November 19, 2012, 1:33 PM
My only bit of crit is that I wished you'd done more than just rehash the final sequence of the End of Evangelion beat for beat except for the bit you threw in there to connect it with Utena.
Now, as far as the plot premise goes, my opinion is that the theme of SKU is the choice between mindless bliss and complicated reality. By the EoE, Shinji's already made his choice-he no longer wants to be part of the system, but he also couldn't give two shits about being the god of the new world-and Asuka's there either because she's strong willed enough to survive, or Shinji can't quite bring himself to erase her from his life. I think that it's make more sense for Ohtori to exist in the sea of LCL as that metaphorical "Garden of Eden" from which mankind must choose to either remain or leave.
MY REPLY
Thanks for the detailed crit, Dot!
Yes, chapter one does read like a rehash of the final sequence of EoE, but I need it there for the built up to Shinji's surreal encounter with Akio-Asuka; plus, I do make implicit what was going on Shinji's mind (via his POV) starting from the beginning of the scene, so hopefully I've inputted something of my own creation (i.e. why he was non-responsive at seeing schoolgirl Rei's image above the LCL sea) into the sequence.
As for Ohtori . . . I think it differs significantly from the LCL sea in that people are not mindlessly blissful - they are tightly controlled by a higher power (Akio) like tools to experience hurt and trauma via crashing of wills (things the LCL sea bunch are dodging), and many of them (like the Student Council) are aware of it. I will spoiler things a bit by saying that this is a story where all the mysterious elements of SKU shall be explained via canon NGE Wiki Terminology. World End's Messiah will contain my take on the true nature of "Ohtori Academy", "Akio", and "Anthy" in this Sci-fi setting, why "they" still exist after 3I, and why they do what they now do, The fact that "Ohtori Academy" could now just appear in the ruins of Tokyo-3 should be a pretty big spoiler as to what "it" really is (but no, it's not quite that most obvious possibility as you might immediately think).
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