Disclaimer: I don't own Evangelion or any copyrighted characters. All fanfiction characters are my own.
A/N: WARNING. WHILE NOT RATED M, THIS FIC MAY CONTAIN EVIL DEEDS DONE TO EVILER MEN/WOMEN.
"Give me time to reason,
Give me time to think it through
Passing through the season,
Where I cheated you
I will always have a cross to wear,
But the bolt reminds me I was there
So give me strength,
To face this test tonight
If only I could turn back time,
If only I had saved what I still had
If only I could turn back time,
I would stay for the night... for the night..."
— Aqua, Turn Back Time
This is Halloween
By Corvus no Genmu the Prince of Slumberland
The Twenty-Sixth Parallel
"Misses Ikari, we're leaving now!" Asuka pushed Shinji through the open door as he called back to his mother.
"See you later mom, dad!"
"Have a good day at school, sweetie!" The pair heard her call back as they raced to the apartment on the opposite side to nearly collide with their friend and fellow classmate of room 2-A, Sam Mortimer.
The pale boy was struggling to put on his left shoe while simultaneously walking and eating a piece of bacon in his mouth. His kid brother called farewell to him alongside his parents as he hopped along beside Asuka and Shinji. Swallowing the bacon down, he glanced at his two friends and smirked.
"Another handprint, Shinji-kun?" asked Sam. "You didn't mention the P-word did you?"
"He did," said Asuka, her nose in the air, "and paid for it in spades I think."
"Whatever, Asuka," muttered Shinji as the trio ran down the stairs and down the sidewalks towards school, all idly noting the heavy traffic leading into the city.
"Hey, isn't there a new student starting today?" asked Shinji. Asuka turned her head slightly to face her childhood friend.
"Yeah, that's right," she said, never slowing down in her run. "Since this city's going to become the new capital, there are a lotta people moving in. It's no wonder we're getting so many new kids. I mean, look at Sam! He moved her all the way from England!" Sam grinned and nodded while Shinji looked upwards, a slight smile on his face.
"Ah, I guess that makes sense. I wonder what she's like? Oh, I hope she's got a great butt. Hehe!" Sam glanced at Asuka's irritated face and increased his speed to be slightly ahead of the 'married couple'.
'Shinji, you're either stupider than you appear or are too damn oblivious. Whichever, I wouldn't want to be you.' Sam thought to himself. 'Hey, how does he know a girl is being transferred today anyway, Katsuragi-sensei didn't tell us anything about the new kid yet!'
Before he could think further on it, Sam's head suddenly experienced a sharp collision with another person's skull, sending them both to the ground groaning in pain.
"Sonofa!" Sam clutched his forehead tightly, biting back the curse that was just begging to be released from his lips. "OW!" He looked up and saw a generous view of something that any of the three stooges would have paid for gladly before looking into the ruby red eyes of the blue-haired girl opposite of him. Sam blinked and nearly did a double take. She looked quite similar to Shinji's mother.
The girl groaned and looked towards Sam and saw the view she was giving him. With a squawk of surprise, she shoved her dress-skirt down. "Oh, ah, I'm sorry!" she said, grabbing her bag. "But I'm really in a hurry kid!" She jumped to her feet and raced off towards the direction of the high school, waving back at him. "I'm really sorry! Bye! See ya!"
'She wouldn't be if she knew I could still see what lies beneath from my position…' Sam stared after her blinking slowly in surprise. Suddenly, Sam's brain finally caught up with what the girl had called him.
"HEY! I'M NOT A KID!" Sam winced and grabbed his head. "Ouch!"
"Wow! So did you see her panties then?" Sam rolled his eyes at the ever eloquent Touji Suzahara, a member of their click of friends. A jock who was brighter than what people took him for and whose crush on the Class Rep was reciprocated. Not that either of them knew that but Sam was digressing from the problem at hand.
"It wasn't really that good of a look, Touji." Sam held out his pointer finger and thumb so that there was but a few centimeters between them. "This much if any." So he was lying, so what? He could feel the aura of menace from Touji's 'girlfriend' alongside Shinji's 'wife' and he was not going to be caught in the crossfire again.
"AWW!" Touji pressed his hand to his face. "I can't believe that you're the one to have all the luck!" Sam shook his head. 'Bad move, Jock-boy.' Hikari's hand gripped Touji's ear tightly and twisted. "Ah! Ow, ow, ow, ow! What're you doing? Let go, Class Rep!"
"Exactly what are you talking about Mister Suzahara?" The other three boys winced. It was obvious that Asuka had been teaching Hikari how to handle the jock. "It's time to put the idle butt of your's to work! Help me check the water in the flower vases!" The pigtailed girl released Touji's ear and walked over to the vases in question.
"She's mean…" whimpered Touji. Sam doubted that Touji meant that if the slightly flush on his face was any indication.
"Did you just say something?" asked Hikari.
"NOTHING!" Touji yelped, leaping to his feet and hurrying after Hikari to check on the vases.
" Poor Touji is so carpet-bagged…" Shinji said. "It's sad isn't it?"
'I mustn't roll my eyes. I mustn't roll my eyes.' Chanted Sam in his head. He did. 'Drat.'
"Look who's talking," muttered Asuka. Sam blinked at that. It was rare for Asuka to ever bring up her and Shinji's strange relationship outside of the childhood friend thing.
"Hey!" exclaimed Shinji. "Are you saying that I'm—"
"I'm merely reporting the facts." Asuka stated.
"How so?" Kensuke sighed and leaned back against his chair
"It just is! Accept it!" Sam sighed and leaned back and brought a hand to his still sore temple.
"Hey, why do you treat me like this?" asked Shinji, grabbing her hand tightly.
"Hey! That hurts you idiot!" Asuka smacked him upside the head.
"OUCH! HEY!"
"The calm, the peace, and tranquility…" muttered Kensuke.
"Grand isn't it?" asked Sam. The familiar sound of tires screeching and a car do a tight 180 degree turn drew everyone's attention to the parking lot briefly. Shinji, Touji, and Kensuke, rushed to the window, exclaiming their teacher's name in glee. Sam sighed but looked outside as well as their young, yet undeniably hot, teacher exited her car. She glanced up at the trio and saw Kensuke's video camera. Smiling, she shot them the peace sign which they reciprocated all too eagerly.
"Just look at those three stooges," grumbled Asuka and Hikari at the same time, earning them a surprised eye from Sam. "Have they no shame."
Sam spared the stooges a glance and, upon hearing their wolf-whistles, calmly stated. "Not a bit."
"Alright! Stand up! Bow! Sit down!" Sam went through the routine and resumed his watch outside the window as their teacher began to speak.
"Listen up dudes!" Misato leaned forward on her desk. "We got new blue-haired babe here to introduce herself!" She giggled and stepped aside just as Sam turned his head in confusion.
'Blue hair? It couldn't be…'
But it was.
"My name is Rei Ayanami!" The red-eyed girl smiled. "How's it hanging!"
"WHA! It's you!" Sam shot to his feet, pointing a finger at the girl who shrieked in shock.
"GWAH! You're the jerk who was staring at my panties!" Sam stepped back in shock, but before he could defend himself, Asuka rose from her seat, ready to defend her best (male) friend. Besides Shinji of course.
"Hey! What do you mean by that? You were the one flashing them you know!"
Rei's eyelids lowered and she glared over at the red-haired German. "Who are you and why are you defending him? Are riding his bologna pony?" She snickered at Asuka's blush.
"NO! We're just really good friends! You shut up!"
"Hey, be quiet you two," said Hikari, standing from her seat. "This is a classroom not a bar!"
"Hey, this is more entertaining than class," giggled Misato from beside her desk. "Go on, I want to see how this turns out."
"Man, Sam. I didn't know you were getting it on with Asuka," said Kensuke, pretending not to see Shinji's jealous glare at the pale-skinned Englishman.
"I'm not getting it on with Asuka! Shinji is but I most certainly am not!"
"What's that supposed to—SHINJI!"
Said boy jumped to his feet in shock and spoke without thinking. "Yes ma'am!"
Needless to say, things went downhill from there.
Sam bonked his head against his desk over and over, each time uttering a single "Ouchie," with every impact. He was alone in the classroom save for one Rei Ayanami, who ignored the boy completely, or at least tried to. His constant head banging was getting rather annoying. Rei rolled her eyes and continued to search for her lunch and, upon finding nothing, cried out a very loud, "CRAP!" That startled Sam enough for him to fall out of his desk.
"Ow, jeezus girl." Sam pulled himself to his feet and looked over at the new girl. "What is it now? Going to say I peeped on you in the showers?"
Rei flushed and ignored the jibe. "I forgot my lunch, pervert-kid." A vein twitched in Sam's temple. Every since he was twelve, Sam hated being called a 'kid' and after the incident of October 31, 2014; no other teenager dared to call him that.
"I am not a kid. I am fourteen just like you, and I am most certainly not a pervert either. If anyone is to blame, it's you! You were the one that wasn't watching where you were going!"
"Well, neither were you!" Rei shot back, glaring up at the boy standing in front of her desk.
"I was on the opposite side of a wall that is twice my height! I'm no Gary Stu, girl! I've not got any god-like powers at my beck and call to save myself the trouble of colliding with your thick skull!"
Before Rei could come up with a retort, her stomach chose that moment to reassert its need of sustenance. She wrapped her arms around her stomach and blushed brightly while Sam's glare left him with a frown in its place. Sighing, her pulled out his lunch and set it down on Rei's desk.
"Here. Annoying or not, I'm not the type of guy that let's a girl starve." He walked back towards his desk, ignoring his own stomach's protestations. Sighing, he closed his eyes but opened them when he heard someone sitting at the desk beside his. Seeing Rei looking back and forth between him and his lunch box, her blush still on her face, Sam felt a strange twitter-patter in his heart but ignored it at the girl's words.
"We can share it," She glanced off to the side. "That is, if you're adult enough for that, pervert-kid." Sam blinked; there was no more venom in her voice only… playfulness. 'Well then, two can play at that game.'
"Suit yourself… Ice-Head."
The world faded to black.
"This is the twenty-sixth parallel? This is what you wished to show me, Angel of Alternatives?" Tabrias turned to look at the god beside him, noting to himself how the fiery eyes never left the globe before them though it was nothing but pitch black.
"I felt it a fitting thank-you gift to you, Celtic God of Death."
Samhain snorted embers. "What gift is this? Showing me an alternative of what could have been. It doesn't change what is now, in our branch of the alternates."
"No, it does not," agreed Tabrias. "But it does show to you, and only you mind, the alternate where you and her are together still."
"… Why did you call me here?" asked Samhain. "I am higher on the status quo than you Angel, so do not try and cover your tracks."
"I do no such thing, God of Death, but though I am lower on the 'status quo' as you call it, does not prevent me from seeing what lies in that inferno of a heart."
"I have no heart," growled Samhain, his fires glowing black. "I am the God of the Dead, the Slicer of the Damned, Lord of Beasts, and the Spirit of Autumn's End! I feel only what I am meant to feel!"
"And you felt it, when she was in your embrace."
Black fires ebbed away to normal shades of red and orange. "You know nothing of what you speak."
"You, like the others of death, have rarely, if ever, let a soul escape from your grasp. In your case, you've held her soul three separate times and each time she was taken from you." Samhain remained silent and turned his back on the Angel. "You know she can never be yours."
"Of that," growled Samhain. "I am all too aware, so why show me the twenty-sixth parallel? Why give this so called gift to me?"
"She and you were alike on the mortal plane," said Tabrias. "You both had human vessels that held your… embodiments I think is the best word for it, and these embodiments developed into something of their own that, had circumstances been different, would have developed into what you see in the twenty-sixth parallel."
"So what? What need have I of this?"
"If what Zeruel has told me is to be taken as truth, you've returned Robin Sena to her place in Heaven, after she assisted in the transportation of Yui Ikari and Kyoko Sohryu and helped you in destroying the Evangelions with Heaven's Fire."
"Yes."
"And the No-Life King and No-Life Queen have had their bonds to humanity broken, whatever limits the Hellsing family set upon them destroyed, and now they roam the darkness of the night together, as true Nosferatu. Yet, to my surprise, I've found that they still continue the work of their previous master. Why?"
"For one who is as old and as vain as Alucard, those vampires that exist now are nothing close to the true breed. To him, and to his wife, they are FREAKs." Samhain's grin was absolutely feral. "He will hunt them down and destroy them."
"I see," said Tabrias. "And what, of your Esper?"
"The Diablos has been trapped in a lamp and sent to a world not far from Sephiroth's. I believe he will find… kinship in a warrior of the gunblade. A boy named Squall Leonhart."
"Ah yes," Tabrias looked up towards the stars. "Sephiroth. How is he?"
"A bad memory."
"That is all to be said then. You have no servants, no allies, nor the companionship of the mortals below. God or not, Samhain, you have been human for over a decade, it's bound to affect the way you think both of yourself and them."
"So?"
"So take the twenty-sixth parallel, Celtic God of Death." The orb floated to Samhain's side and remained there. "And do with it what you will. There is nothing more that can be done now."
"No, there really isn't is there?" Samhain looked towards a particularly bright pair of stars. "Does she even remember?"
"Even I cannot see that, Samhain and I know better than to ask as do you."
"Hurmph." Samhain walked away, the orb following after him and his scythe held tightly in his hand. "I guess I can exist with that."
"Samhain," called Tabrias. "If she did remember, what would you do?"
Samhain paused, standing for what could have been a moment of infinity before he unfolded his wings. "I don't know…" With that, the Celtic God took off to his realm of existence with Tabrias watching him as he went.
"It'll be better," said the Angel of Alternatives. "You'll see."
"Will he?" asked the one who was once known as Rei Ayanami now better to be called Eve. "Or will I?" She faded back to her star.
"If only you both knew." Tabrias smiled sadly. "If only I knew."
It Is Finished…