Creation began on 04-09-19

Creation ended on 08-02-19

Neon Genesis Evangelion

An Ancient Guardian: Return and Freedom

Returning to the sight where he made his deal with the Angel of the Day, Shinji, accompanied by the restored Adam, waited for the arrival of Shamshel that would end this conflict between the people that started this madness against the children of an earthbound deity for good and enable the people that didn't seek this madness to begin with to live out their lives.

How long has it truly been since this whole thing started? He wondered, looking at the Bands of Exodia on his wrists. I know this has been going since before I was even thought of, but how long since before Second Impact, the so-called beginning of the end of the world? Perhaps it all started…when people started to lose touch with the things that really mattered in life: Family, friends, feelings. After this day and the day Exodia appeared for the first time in many ages to save my life, giving hope back to the people, we'd do well to remember these days until our final breaths are taken. Even after our final moments are spent, we should reflect on these days.

"She is here now," went Adam to Shinji as the water below them began to ripple. "Time to close this chapter for good."

"Yes," he agreed with the deity.

-x-

Misato couldn't believe that Shinji was standing next to a human-sized version of the First Angel at the coastal area where he made his pact with the Fourth Angel. The very sight of the Angel brought up some painful memories from her past, but to see the creature that was the corresponding cause of people's suffering due to being experimented on by her father's research team reduced to the size of a human, not making any attempts to harm the boy that had been harmed by others, reminded that this day was to end everything between the Angels and the human race… She just wasn't as excited about it as she thought she would've been.

"I really think we should send Unit-02 there to handle the matter personally," Ritsuko told her.

"We have our orders not to pursue the boy," Misato responded. "All we can do is observe."

The arrival of the Fourth Angel had several of the personnel on edge when it hovered just in front of Shinji and the First Angel.

"This is insane," went Asuka.

-x-

"I don't suppose that you can translate what Shamshel says, can you, Adam?" Shinji asked the First Angel.

"I can," Adam answered him.

He doesn't need to, they heard the voice of the Fourth Angel, and they looked right up to. You were able to do as you said you would. Thanks to you, this conflict can end without further violence towards either side.

"Some of the greatest of battles or wars are won without conflict," Shinji told Shamshel, and then tossed his sword to the ground, as if to prove a point of what he said.

"Farewell, young Ikari," Adam told him as he levitated towards Shamshel. "You saved your race and the world they live in. Good luck to you in your future."

"And all of you in yours."

With Adam now atop her head, Shamshel turned away and left the cliffside where Shinji stood. Fifteen years since this feud started…and it ended in just the span of a few days after making a pact with a boy that severed his ties with other people in order to save them. She suspected that the only person in all of existence willing to do what he did had to be one that had nothing left to lose because they never had anything to begin with…until they were gifted with small tokens that enabled them to turn their lives around.

If you live to see another century, boy, Shamshel told Shinji, I hope it's one where the people you saved from destruction at their own hands are reminded that you gave up what was never yours to begin with so they could live!

They submerged into the ocean water and disappeared from sight.

-x-

"Blue pattern has vanished," a woman informed Misato on the bridge.

"He did it," went Kaji, sounding almost disappointed. "He saved the world."

"Yeah, he did," Misato agreed with him, watching on the screens as Shinji sat down on the ground and let his feet dangle on the edge of the cliff as he looked up at the sky.

Yui couldn't believe her eyes when she saw Shinji return Adam to the Angel and watch as the two departed, never to be seen again for the rest of humanity's days. It wasn't what she initially had in mind when she started the Evangelion project to regenerate Adam and manipulate Lilith, but then Shinji threw everything off the path they were set on and changed the outcome. Her son…more or less ruined her bright future for all of humanity by replacing it with his own version where Human Instrumentality doesn't happen and people are able to rebuild and reclaim the coastal areas and where signs of life started to return.

"Still, you must be proud of him," she heard Ritsuko say to her.

But Yui said nothing in response to this.

-x-

It was finally over. It felt like a dream come true to Shinji, except for it to be a dream, there had to be a nightmare that needed to be endured. As he lay there on the edge of the cliff, looking up at the clear skies above, he smiled at the thought of finally being free of it all. Free from his family, free from NERV, from SEELE, the struggle with the Angels, all of it. He was finally free, with his life his own now, able to do with it whatever he wished.

"Hmmrh!" He heard the familiar growling sound of his savior as he appeared beside him, looking down at him.

"I owe you everything, Exodia," Shinji told him, grateful to him for saving his life.

"You honor him by living, Shinji," he saw the Water Element appear, her body obscured by heavy mist so that was not bothered by her lack of clothing. "You honor us all by living. You saved this world. It's your world now, and everyone else, including ourselves, we just live in it with you."

Before he got up to speak more to them, they had vanished; they must've been there just to say what he needed to hear from them.

"Thank you," he uttered, picking up his sword. "It's time to move on. Time to seize my own future…and hope for the best."

He sliced through the air in front of him and created a schism through space, no direction in mind, and jumped through it. He was a nomad, a ronin, a traveler without a destination, going wherever he chose.

-x-

Epilogue

Two years have passed since the defeat of NERV and SEELE, and the world had made remarkable progress in the reconstruction of the coastal areas that were once lost to them. There was a balance between nature and science. Crime was still present, but rarely around most cities. People went to work as they usually always did, or laughed with their children, complained with their friends, watch the news with their pets or went to bed with their spouses.

Life in Japan was one of the most impressive after the world's first encounter with a creature that destroyed an Angel and restored the planet to its proper axis. Spring had arrived and people were walking around the streets of a regrowing Tokyo. This was where Misato Katsuragi was currently as she was taking a break from planning a wedding with Kaji after he popped the question to her. She was just sitting outside at a café with a cup of coffee in her hands, thinking about how things were after NERV was disbanded by her and converted into an extension of Hakone's new urban development center.

Ritsuko Akagi had moved to Osaka to join up in a research project on human spinal regeneration, so Misato barely heard from her over the following weeks.

Most of the NERV personnel went their separate ways and returned to the work force elsewhere now that there was no need for a paramilitary agency, with the Evangelions left in service after the disbanding were put into storage, just in case they would be needed later in the future.

Yui Ikari, on the other hand, after a hard-fought battle with helping Gendo recover from his breakdown and probation release from the hospital, had moved on and returned to school to get a degree in therapeutic research; Misato had guessed it was because the woman had spent more time trying to plan things than to actually talk to anyone, and this was her penance, probably hoping one day that Shinji would come find her and just talk to her.

Rei Ayanami went to live with them, being passed off as their adopted daughter.

Shinji… Nobody had seen or heard from him since he disappeared that day the Angels were defeated. While a small reward for any information leading to his whereabouts was issued, not many people thought much of it, mainly due to who his father was and how his other relatives treated him; if Shinji didn't want to be found most people had to respect that. But there were some people, all around the world, that is, who claimed to have seen him every now and then, only it was always in the presence of a monster or person with exaggerations or clothing or weapons that didn't exist anywhere else on the planet; this made Misato and a few others suspect that Shinji wandered around with these creatures, showing up every once in a while, either to help catch someone committing a crime…or to let people catch a glimpse of the young man that made sure they had a future to live in.

"A hero that falls into obscurity," Misato sighed as she finished her coffee. "A boy, a man, a nomad, a vigilante, a disowned child with nothing from his family, a hero that saved everyone…and a legend."

"You left out a simple person with small ambitions," she heard a male voice from across the café, and she looked up, not believing her eyes.

Maybe nobody else was interested in looking, but a seventeen-year-old Shinji Ikari, wearing an open, button-up shirt over a blue t-shirt and jeans was sitting at one of the tables, looking as though he were an average guy with nothing else to do. Sitting in front of him was a girl of similar age who turned to face Misato, revealing a friendly face with long, grayish hair, wearing a rather medieval-like dress with a bodice and trousers.

"Small, happy ambitions," the girl had spoken.

Misato could see that on Shinji's wrist, those golden bands still resided like they were some kind of fashion accessory. She slowly got up and walked over to them.

"Living off the grid?" She asked Shinji.

"Yes and no," he answered her.

"He's been staying with me," the girl explained.

"Girlfriend?"

"For a year-and-a-half…until this morning," Shinji confessed, and the girl showed a ring on her finger. "This is Kaede Sogen, my fiancée from Hokkaido."

"The big island? Sweet. Does she…know about your past?"

"I know everything about Shinji," Kaede told her. "He saved my mother's life and I when we first met. I'm very grateful to have gotten to know him since then."

Misato looked at Shinji, wondering what he did exactly to earn such admiration from this girl to have ended up in a relationship with her.

"Let's just say that cars and I don't go together very well," he expressed, wanting to leave it at that because it was a sour point for him.

"Right," she responded, deciding not to question the subject. "So when is your wedding?"

Before Shinji even said anything, he looked at Kaede…and then passed her at who he could see watching them, like a watchful guardian angel of sorts. Every so often, Shinji would see his savior from a distance, either there to encourage him to be around others or to intimidate those that threatened him. While he never spoke a word to him, Shinji knew that Exodia's very presence spoke in volumes that words failed to transmit.

"Who gets married during the winter season?" He asked, and Exodia disappeared again.

Exodia, obliterate the end!

A/N: And here we are, at the end of the road of this journey. Shinji has gone from a boy that was confined to a wheelchair with a broken will to a man that can stand on his own and defy those that try to oppress him and is able to move on from his past and pursue his own future. How he goes on, I'll let you choose from here on out.