Setting: From End of Evangelion. I know this a little too weird. Even for me.
NGE belongs to Hideaki Anno and Gainax
*****
There was darkness.
For a while, the world has become red. Red as the blood that freely flowed in her pale hands. They were people once. People who shed their physical shields, to become another higher plane of their existence. The people who created this "miracle" blindly believed that by doing this, they were saving the world from its useless existence: sustaining humankind even though it was being slowly destroyed in the process. Exhausting the limited resources they only had for their own selfish needs.
How foolish they were. How narcisstic! Humans had thought they can equal God, but can only imitate His creations. They can never attain His image. So that is why they spent their lives on acquiring wisdom! Through invention and knowledge, they had twisted it from within, thinking that their short lives will answer the truth of the universe.
Science has always been Nature's most hated enemy.
The bitterness in her heart and mind was driving in her consciousness like a hot knife. Demanding that she should take part of a greater cause. That she should no longer be part of the role of a doll. To be used by someone else's personal whim. The emotions jarred against her, as she tried to find a solace from the anger, from the loneliness.
Then she noticed someone approaching her.
"Who are you?" She asked.
"I am the other girl from your consciousness. We haven't really met. But you know I am nearby. And I know you as well."
"Ikari's mother." She said flatly.
"More of a shadow of the mother." The person shook her head. "The one left behind to protect my child."
"The one the commander wanted to see for a long, long time."
"That I do not doubt. But we both knew who he really is. Why he has done such things. He will never seek to destroy everything; unlike what the others had thought."
"He no longer is the man you loved. He left your son to fend for himself. He is using him as a tool as I am."
"Because he is afraid to love again. Gendou has no one before I met him. Losing someone must be a very frightening experience for him," the person almost smiled. "For that I am truly sorry for leaving him abruptly." She looked at her. "But you sounded too bitter for that. Not unlike the last one."
"…..?"
"The last one. She spoke to me, you see. Asking me who she is."
"The Second one," she said, remembering. The one who was in Unit 01's cockpit.
"Yes and now you are the Third. You hold the grief and anger of your predecessors. Almost as if you are making up for it. But now the power is yours. With no one to make you choose what they would want. What will you do to it?"
The Third didn't hesitate to respond. "I will no longer make Shinji sad anymore. He will no longer be lonely. I will create a world in his image. What he had always wanted in his life."
"Ah. But what about his feelings?" the Mother asked. "In that world, he will be alone. He wished to be with someone. Can't you hear it?"
"I heard it. Unit-02's pilot." The Third felt anger in her. What did Ikari see in her anyway? Why did he choose her?
"If you continue this, Shinji will only suffer." Another voice said. But this is not the other She.
"The Angel." Third whispered, not looking up.
"Yes." A young boy with crimson eyes and silver hair stepped forward next to the Mother. "Humankind needs another chance to live."
"But it's too late." Third answered, a bit angrily. "It has already begun. The Third Impact…"
"The Third is no different from the Second. You of all people should know that." Third looked up in surprise as the Second stepped forward as well. Looking at her steadily with her good crimson eye, the other bandaged. "Humans will thrive."
"Because even though they have been like this." The Angel whispered.
"They have been always kind." The Mother finished.
"But what if they don't?" The Third insisted.
"There's always hope."
"I have no power over you." The Mother said. "For you have always been another person. Never me."
"I have no power over you." The Angel said. "For even though we are the same, we are very different."
"I have no power over you." The Second said. "For I had lived and ended my life for what I had always wanted. This life is yours alone."
"But we have the same wish." The Mother added gently.
"Ikari-kun's happiness." The Angel nodded.
"And for that, we came to tell you this." The Second told her. "We share your feelings. We know your conflict. But please do not end it this way. , if you wish for Ikari to remember you. Give him the choice."
"But I will die if he rejects me."
"Would you prefer to live his ideal world alone? Surely he would prefer not to seek it. I know I learned of this." The Mother said sadly.
"But if he choose to live. Will I see you again?" Third asked. "I don't want to be alone again."
"You were never alone. You just didn't notice."
*****
Shinji and Asuka were lying on the desolate beach. The ocean of LCL was lapping gently against the breeze. Shinji never knew what happened. But what he did understand is that the world he knew was no more.
He sat up, dazed, then a movement caught his eye. A blue-haired girl in the school uniform he knew so well stood silently nearby. In the blink of the eye, she disappeared. Never to be seen again.
The boy half-smiled before whispering. "Thank you. Ayanami."
